I'm knitting a sock. An actual sock.

Well, I finished my shrug*, and it's very cute and VERY orange. Of course, it's cotton, so it wants to stretch out of shape a bit. I added a single crochet border around the opening, but that doesn't seem to have done a whole lot to reduce the stretching. I think I'm going to try running some elastic around the opening. The fit isn't bad, but unfortunately I know EXACTLY how I want this thing to fit, so I've gone into perfectionist mode. I loved working with the Cotton Tape. I ordered more from Elann on Tuesday morning, and this morning, my mailman showed up with a wonderful Elann box full of purple Cotton Tape for me. From Washington (state) to Maryland in 3 days? Wow. I may take back some of the things I've said about the post office. The purple is going to be a Cache-Coeur Bergamo, which is a pattern I've wanted to make for over a year. The pattern calls for a hard-to-sub discontinued yarn, but the Cotton Tape should work nicely.

If you follow my projects list over in the sidebar, you may have noticed that the in-progress sock pattern has changed. I had been working on the Lolita legs stockings from Knitty, but I didn't like how they were coming out in the handdyed yarn, so I frogged. I had the yarn out anyway, so for fun, I cast on two nights ago for the Petticoat Socks from Weekend Knitting. My needles were way too big, so the sock was much too wide. I don't exactly need a wide sock. I loved the pattern though, so I frogged again, and bought properly sized sock needles yesterday. Teeny skinny #2 circulars. Cast on again last night, and now I'm through 6 repeats of the lace pattern on the leg (a little less than halfway through the leg). I'd have more done, but the cast-on and first few rounds take forever. You cast on over two circs, split the stitches, and then leave 2 circs in the cast-on stitches while working the top with two other circs. Yes, there are 4 circs in the sock at one time. It led to a lot of "Am I using the right needle?" Once you get 8 rounds done, you fold over the knitting and graft the cast-on edge together with the top stitches, creating a little tube around the top. I was going to do both socks at once, but after seeing what the cast-on entailed, I figured I'd try to not make this even MORE complicated. Sock knitting hasn't appealed to me at all before now, but I have to say, I'm enjoying this. I think the key to me making socks is that I need an interesting pattern. Lace! Lace is interesting!

I know, I owe pictures of my shrug, and probably one of the in-progress sock. They're coming. I just didn't feel like getting out my camera, and I should wait until I have natural light anyway. :)

From the "Awesome tales of the library" file. Someone came in today and had to pay a $4 fine. She brought it all in pennies... UNROLLED pennies. So, my coworker brings her some penny wrappers and tells her that the only way we'll accept payment in pennies is if they're wrapped. The girl, it turns out, doesn't know how to use a penny wrapper. She didn't realize that you have to COUNT how many pennies you put in a roll; you don't just fill it until it's full. My poor coworker sat there with this person for about 30 minutes, rolling pennies with her. Shockingly enough, she was really happy once 5:00 rolled around.

Lastly, I don't know what Lord of the Rings has to do with TBS's whole "very funny" programming motto, but the ads they've been running for FOTR and TTT for the last week are hilarious. "Frodo & Sam: Secret Lovers" is so wrong, but so right.

*Susan G: The shrug pattern is in the Craftster thread I linked to (post #6), and there are a number of pictures of people's finished shrugs in the thread as well.