Persistent Knitter

“…Where is Everybody?” From Shrek (which stole it from another movie before that, but I don’t know which one)

I have too many projects in my knitting basket/bags! Two sweaters in the basket (Hardangervidda and moss/cable cardigan for Katie), socks for Alex (Cascade Fixation), socks for Katie - not yet started, socks for DH not yet started (but I have selected pattern and yarn). I need to focus ab it and get Alex’s socks done. I’m doing his first because I have mommy guilt that everyone else in the house has a pair of hand knit socks but him. Yeah, he’s only 4 months old and he’ll never know. But I will!

New Stuff
I just ordered and received two sock patterns: Hedgerow Socks & Parallel Socks. I’m planning on using the Hedgerow pattern for DH’s xmas socks this year. I’m using Trekking XXL doubled and just cast on last night. Not sure I’ve got the right number of stitches, but we’ll do an inch or two and see where we are. (No pictures, no time, plus am trying to finish Alex’s socks for a photo shoot :)

Needle Sizes
So I stopped by one of my LYSs today. It’s one I don’t go to frequently even though it’s the closest. They have alot of fru-fru scarf yarns, some basic yarns (which are more expensive than at the other LYS I do frequent more often) and stuff I just generally don’t knit with very often. Plus they don’t carry needles that I like (except for Addi Turbos).

Anyway, I was having a discussion with the clerk (sales person? LYS Employee? Person behind the register?) about what I was currently knitting. I mentioned I was knitting baby socks with Cascade Fixation and she asked me what size needles I used for that. She’s a fairly new knitter that has been introduced to sock knitting fever and was curious since she hadn’t used that yarn before. (They carry a lot of self-patterning sock yarn and scarf yarn at this shop). I told her I don’t know, but I think they were 2.5mm. She said, “Oh, what US size is that?” My reply, “I don’t know, I don’t trust US sizes anyway”. So we had a long discussion where I educated her about mm sizes and how even though it says “US #1″ on it, doesn’t mean it’s the same size needle. I showed her two different brands of needles on her own shelves to demonstrate. She seemed a bit startled :) It was actually a very pleasant conversation and hopefully I didn’t come off too rabid with my hatred of the inconsistencies of labelling needles.

Gas Mileage
I’ve been tracking my gas mileage in my new car, since one of the reasons I traded in the SUV was to get better gas mileage. Getting a V6 won’t help it tons, but here’s the results:

SUV mileage average over 3.5 years: 18.5 mpg (according to their little trip computer thingy that calculated it for me)

1st tank: 18.5 mpg (bleah!)
2nd tank: 19.99 mpg (better)
3rd tank: 21.6 mpg

The EPA mileage (city/highway) is: 19/26 for my car.
All my driving is city, except for the 1 mile stretch of toll road I get on to go to/from work which probably works against me as I insist on getting up to at least 70mph before I get done with that short stretch.

Another funny note, as I was putting the new plates on my car today outside the DMV, a Subaru WRX (also in pretty blue) drove by and someone in the car shouted at me “WRX is better!”. Silly boys.