Level up!

Evening all. I hope the past week was good to you and the new one will be also.

Whilst my plans for 2011 had been to update my blog twice a week I rather failed this week, mostly because my prime photographing opportunity in the winter months is at the weekend and last weekend we were doing family things with the in-laws, very little knitting was done never mind photography.

This weekend has been better. For a start being at home has meant a lot of incredibly dull but incredibly necessary jobs have been done. All of our clean clothes are ironed, I went shopping so we have food for the week ahead, I made soup and lasagne from scratch (well I used pre-made pasta so almost from scratch!) with extra of both for the freezer ready for busier times, I had a trim at the hairdressers, I cut Mr NM's hair and I put several loads into the washing machine. In our house this gets me "achievement points" and means I can tell Mr NM I've done lots of things and so I shall sit and knit as much as I please. I'm allowed to sit and knit as much as I please anyway but it's more satisfying when I know all of the housework is done already.

As well as housework "achievement points" I got some knitting "achievement points" and worked on my goal of learning new knitterly techniques. I levelled up on my sock knitting skills with a new project (losing points for finishing projects before starting new ones, oops) in which I am knitting a pair of sock using magic loop, both socks on one needle. No second sock syndrome, no counting rows to make sure they match. Nope, they will match and I'll finish the pair at the same time. These are for Mr NM which gets bonus points as he does ask for new socks on a rather frequent basis.

Yarn/needle/pattern details are on my ravelry project page here.

I'll be honest, I always thought I was a DPNs all the way girl, I really did. I must now admit I have totally fallen in love with magic loop. That is not to say I'm putting down my DPNs, not at all. It's just that sometimes I can see magic loop is the way to go. I don't get ladders in stockinette when knitting magic loop, I don't get them with DPNs if I switch the stitches on the needles but that means remembering which is the first stitch, no such problem with magic loop. Also I've got a habit of shoving sock projects in the bottom of my handbag and alongside this a habit of losing whatever I'm using to stop my stitches sliding off the needles, no such problem with magic loop.

I will admit I'm a little afraid of the bit where I get to the heel BUT I have this tutorial and I'm reminding myself that it will all be fine, it's only knitting, no one dies if I make a mistake. It will be just fine.

So yes, achievement points and levelling up.

This post may have been influenced by my frequent observations of Mr NM as he plays computer games and the discussions that follow.