Why I knit socks

I am almost past the heel on the second Shibui sock. This is why I love knitting socks. Instant gratification. I started last week and I am about half way done in a week. Of course, I had some knitting time this week. I took the train down to New York City on Wednesday for a workshop. So I knit on the way there and back. An ipod, a sock and I'm in travel heaven.

The train got me to New York an hour before I needed to be there. At first I planned to just go to the workshop location and knit. But somehow, I wasn't paying attention to the geography of Manhattan and ended up on Avenue of the Americas instead of Park. I am now convinced that it was fate because I was only two or three blocks from Kinokuniya's New York store. I had stored the address in my PDA on a previous trip. So I went there and spent an enjoyable hour browsing Japanese knitting books. I bought one. Some of the photos below are a little out of focus because I was photographing a book. If it is too difficult to view the details, I'll get better pictures. Just leave me a comment and I'll update them.

It is an older book because it says 2005 on the cover. It is full of work-friendly yet interesting knits. This is the cover. The sweater caught my eye because the houndstooth background is a variegated yarn. Very delicately variegated.It is part of a suit, as are many of the garments in the book. Knitted skirts are not my thing. Actually skirts are not my thing but the suit jackets and tops are things I would wear. You can see the suit here. This jacket has a very interesting cable on it. It is a combination of cables and openwork.This is an allover traveling st but there are interesting little details in some of the areas where the sts come together.A suit with a vest on top. The vest is also an interesting cabled design. The book also has some fair-isle designs, both by themselves and combined with texture.This is one of the loveliest lace designs in the book.There are men and women's sweaters. Some are just OK but I found many of them interesting and all of them are classic shapes with set-in sleeves and shaped waists.

All in all, this was a good week. I just also made my first whole wheat sourdough bread and it looks pretty good. I haven't tasted it yet but the dough smelled really good as it was baking.