we who are about to die...

one of the knitting ladies in my weight watchers group talked me into joining sock wars iii.  well, tomorrow is the big day - the dossiers (and pattern) are dispatched tomorrow at 12 noon GMT - which is something like 5 am my time.  when i got the notice, i decided i had better check on the sock wars forum, just to see what is going on - turns out there are people who are not only going to be up sitting over their computer at some ridiculous hour of the morning, to get the pattern right away, there are people who are doing things like taking friday off work, dispatching the children to the homes of friends and relations and stocking up on frozen dinners, so they can knit "like billy-o", and get the things done.  well, i am so not doing any of that, so i suspect i won't last long - still, the earliest i can be 'killed' is monday (the fastest knitter says she takes 8 hrs/sock, which means she can't get them in the mail till saturday, at the earliest, and there's no mail delivery sunday....unless i get some super-fast knitter who lives close enough to hand-deliver them).  ah well - at worse, i get a pair of socks, and a pattern to make more.

i may, however, be guilty of reverse sexism.  when i went to get yarn, i was thinking in war-appropriate colors emphasizing black and red...but what i got seems to have a fair amount of pink:

BUT:  it seems there are some knitting men who have entered...and i'm not sure they would appreciate pink socks (even ones with dashing streaks of red and black).  don't know what i will do if i get one of those - all the sock yarn in my stash is either stuff i really don't want to give up, or rather girly.  well, odds are, i'll get a female.

i have gotten a few things made since the last time i posted (i _do_ seem to be fixated on knitting lately, i'm afraid).  nothing done on any of the works-in-progress, of course.  i did finish a pair of tabi socks for myself (i made them a bit short, because they will most likely be worn with shorts, and i think it would look rather odd if i wore mid-calf length socks with shorts):

then, of course, knit picks offered kits with a selection of their cotton-blend yarns, with FREE PATTERNS!  which apparently, i can't resist - but i have made a little purse:

and a hat:

(which i need to try wearing in the car with the top down - i think it would work nicely to keep my hair a bit under control, which is a good excuse for wearing a hat).

and the nori kept calling me, so i started a little scarf:

which of course goes on hold now - but i'm really quite pleased with it, so hopefully i can get back to it soon.  i started knitting it in a pattern called 'orca' (or whale's tail), but that is a one-sided pattern, and i have a thing about scarves looking good on both sides.  the colors reminded me of seaweed, and i remembered a pattern in a barbara walker book called "seaweed", which is reversible (although the two sides are different).  i did feel like doing something a bit more open (since it will be purely decorative) - so i added in some yo/k2togs (i am amused to think of them as air bubbles forming along the seaweed fronds).  hopefully, at least some of this stuff is visible in the photo.

well, guess i'd better go do a test swatch tonight, since the gauge was published a week ago......