Wait a second, wait a second. Was that a weekend? Who took a day and made is disappear? I know there was a Saturday, I know there was a Sunday so maybe it was Friday that went AWOL. I don't know about anyone else, but these first few days of January have moved like lightning speed.

Friday, I visited with the ladies I started knitting with almost a year ago. I haven't seen some of them in months and it was great seeing them again. Even after all this time away, it was a very warm welcome. Knitters are the greatest people. I hope to visit on that side of the city a little more often now that fuel prices are a little lower, and I am off the day they meet.

I finished my Fan Neckwarmer project but photos are going to wait until I get them delivered. Maybe one of my glamorous sisters will model for me.

With those done, I am moving on. Well to black socks to be more precise. I have been contemplating the foot of the first finished black sock. Mr. Needles tried it on and since it is loose on his leg, it is going to have to be re-worked. Son1 has even narrower ankles. It would be positively baggy on him. I have been contemplating how to salvage the good parts and I think what I am going to do is to keep the calf, and re-work the bottom. Though the second of the pair is toe up, this one can be top down, since a tube is a tube is a tube. Then the heels and I will be done these painful socks. I can't work on them more than an hour or so a day. It pulls my eyes right out of their sockets. Never again black.

To get the black socks off my mind I am working on cheerful things. The first is a pair of socks in Trekkings new 6 ply yarn.

The slightly heavier weight yarn is making for very fast knitting. Sock one of the pair was completed when I wasn't knitting Fan Neckwarmers. I did this bit last night in under an hour. The first sock feels great on my foot. I'm not generally a big fan of working with Trekking yarns. It isn't the softest yarn on the market, but one of the oldest pairs of socks around here is made from Trekking, and I can vouch for the sturdiness of its wear when it is machine washed and dried. They just keep getting better each time they come out of the machines. This 6 ply has a lot more volume in the strand, so it is a little bit more fun to work up and I can't wait to see how these perform over the long haul.

Next up, this eye-popping version of the Shape It scarf from Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch. I originally bought the yarn for my mom. It is Louisa Harding Impressions. I ended up not using it for mom because it feels a little more scratchy than I wanted it to be for her. Its going to be great to wear as an accessory to work.

Every colour of the rainbow is in this mix and a few that were not invented in nature are in there too. It has a brilliant jewel toned flair and is going to brighten up everything I own. Just the right thing to work on in January in Canada.

Even as the other projects are on the needles, this is what I spent most of my time on yesterday. I have 3 skeins of Socks That Rock 'Smoke' It is a wave of rich tones, deep blues, warm rich russet and a good dose of a black toned, almost metallic looking taupe. The blend is quite simple breathtaking, and I really wanted to show it off. There really isn't a stitch pattern to this. It is just open eyelets every 4th row. The sad part is, this is my goofing around sample. Now that I have the stitch count worked out and know how the pattern performs on what I hope will be a horseshoe shaped shawl, it is going to be ripped back and restarted, so that the patterning is through the entire shawl.

I anticipate a quick knit, since the body is going to be medium sized only. There will be a wider, more flamboyant, openwork border to finish it off. I like the idea of the more solid ground of the project to show off the colour patterning of the yarn, and the open lacy like finish. No point making an accessory too sombre.

January is moving like lightning so far, and yet, this part of winter, this settling down after the holidays should seem like winters dark slow days. Since I took up knitting, time feels like it goes too fast and I catch myself wishing there was just a few more weeks in January than there are.

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Yes since I took up knitting, I find myself wishing there was just a few more weeks, just a little more time. I'm not really wishing for more winter. It only looks that way.