Two-fer!

 So this is the Swedish Check block. In all honesty, yes it's nice, but it feels like a lot more work than it's worth. Why? Every knit stitch on the right side rows are twisted. Which for some odd reason is hard on my left hand. That and it would take a trained eye who knew what they were looking for to see it. It looks like a small basket weave pattern to me.

The one I'm working on now is worse though (on my hand at least). Every stitch that shows as a knit on the right side is twisted. Sometimes I plant my right hand needle so I don't have to worry about holding it in place. (This is either done in the fold of my knee if I'm sitting cross-legged or at about my hip joint otherwise.) It helps if I have to flick the yarn back and forth a lot or if I'm working on something heavy. But if that needle is stable and static I have a hard time purling through the back loop. So I have to hold the needles aloft. Actually, I might shift back to the 14 inch needles and try it again tomorrow, those tend to work better for holding steady anyhow. We'll see how well I do at getting all those twisted stitches... (What would I except when it's called twisted check? Clearly straight forward knitting.)

Something a little simpler now. The timed sock. That's with about a half hour's work on it since you last saw it. I don't think I'm going to do much for a cuff, just let it curl. I think it'll look pretty with the hand dyed nature of the yarn. It's actually vacation yarn from when I visited my parents in AZ. Was hand-dyed in AZ as well. (Side-note: This snow loving Nebraskan does not approve of the dry heat. It's tricky and gives me headaches. (Or maybe I should endeavor to stay hydrated, huh?)) I'm at 5:12 so far. Which means that I may end up staying near the 17 hours per pair of socks that I quote at people. Also, the timing myself knitting a pair of socks is something I do every now and again. I have a shoddy sense of time and usually can't quote how long it takes me to make something, and I like being able to tell people how long it takes for me to make a pair of socks, since every so often I do get a request for them from people. (Had a coworker who didn't get that I wasn't going to knit her a gift recently, with less than a week to Christmas and five presents that would take priority over that.) Partly, because I do free-lance knitting every so often, (yes, my resume does say "free-lance textile artist.") and I think it's nice to give people an idea of what they're actually paying for. Then again I also know that it would be crazy to charge an hourly rate. Even if we weren't counting yarn, there's no way to get socks under 100, and get a "living wage."

Wow, I rambled. Maybe I should go to sleep... (or maybe I've decided to play with a function that I have access to)

Bright Blessings and happy crafting!