A day home with a sick LaLa is a productive knitting day indeed

LaLa was up last night with a fever again. Day 6 of the antibiotics. We went to the doctor to check it out - on the good side, her ears were clear, on the less good side, it's probably a virus and the fever should be gone in 3-5 days. DH is home with her tomorrow. That's really going to put a cramp on my knitting.

You remember those last couple of posts. Remember how I was going to start those mittens next. Yeah. Well, I had an hour to knit last night and I frogged the old pewter socks and cast on for some wild and crazy striped socks for me. Colorful Cathy, remember? Today I really enjoyed working on them too. I got through the cuff and started on a plain stockinette calf. Not sure how tall the socks will be. We tend to be a little wierd about socks in Florida. Taller than footies, not all the way up to the curvy part of my calf. We might call them ankle socks.

Also today, after looking at the cuff of the sock and the calf part, I felt pretty guilty. Cause, you know, that's what knitting the mitten would be like if I had started it. It took noticing that several times today before I actually cast on for the mitten. Took about 3 tries to cast on. First with 36 stitches (too many), then with 30 stitches (just right) and 2x2 ribbing (um. Math Minor. 30/4 = 7.5. It took me a while to figure out why I couldn't get it to end on a purl-2. I kept thinking, "But I have the same number of stitches on each needle!" Then I realized I only had three needles, not four. ) Third try with 30 stitches and a k3p2 rib, which I like quite a bit. In fact, I think it's my favorite feature of the mitten. One of my other favorite features is that I have the first one almost done - I'm on the decreases on the top and it needs a thumb.

I hope my aunt's hands are a little narrower than mine - when I try them on, it takes what I'd have to call, quite a bit of negative ease. I know that they are about a knuckle length shorter, so I'm hoping it's proportional. The yarn color is a little dreary to me - I hope it turns out to be OK. LaLa doesn't like it, but I think she has colorful tendancies. Her favorite yarn is pink LionBrand FancyFur.
In contrast, Here is a photo of the sock in progress and the mitten, nearly complete.
And this is a pretty good representation of the yarn color in "real" life (i.e. taken on a real digital camera and not my phone.)