I am whack

I didn't realize how much of a spendy mood I was in when I went to the grand opening of a new yarn store, Purlescence Yarns in Sunnyvale this weekend. As you can see from the pic, I had a blue-ish theme going here. Left to right, all lightweight Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts 'cept the last one which is Sock Candy (cotton/Elite): Peaseblossom (seen online as the STR Club Hippy Crunchy pattern), 2 of the Midsummer's Night Dream themed colors - Nodding Violet (Purlescence owner Nathania named this one) and Love-In-Idleness (ironically I did not grab the last Puck's Mischief, tapmouse's named one), Chapman Springs (this is the first one I grabbed out of instinct), Seal Rock (a tapmouse fav), and Hurricane. And thanks to tapmouse's cool idea, here they are opened up minus Peaseblossom 'cause you can see lots of pics of it knitted up on the STR KAL.

(Heh, monkey2 won't stay still enough for me to take a pic of her in the toddler socks, but she somehow manages to sneak her hand into this pic.)

I got to Purlescence 15 minutes after they opened and a lot of the STR stock was gone already. All the Fire on the Mountain went quick. There was one X-Mas Rock left, but I didn't pick it up. If there was any Watermelon Tourmaline it was gone 'cept for the one in the Fair Isle kit. Felt up the Bambu (very soft stuff) and merino/tencel, but will wait on those 'til November as I got a 10% coupon in my bag good for the beginning of November. Hopefully, they get restocked in the Socks That Rock by then.

And to prove that I am doing something w/my sock yarn, I finished the toddler socks. It's a good thing I only made 2.5" cuff/legs 'cause I didn't have very much left over when I was done. It's still a little big for monkey2, but she ran away while trying to take the socks off when I busted out the digital camera. Apparently, she prefers the sneaking her hand in a stash shot to be more fun. (See above.)

Pattern: His, Hers, Ours toddler socks from Rainbow Knits for Kids
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersport in Winterberry (discontinued) - sold as a half hank from Trash & Treasure
2T-3T size (40 sts)
modifications:
size 3 needles instead of size 5 called for in pattern, tighter gauge as a result
2.5 in cuff - using lace pattern

I also managed to finish my first Jaywalker this weekend and am gearing up to cast on the second before I get sidetracked w/all my other new sock yarn. So my thoughts so far on my Jaywalkers are:

- I may need to be one of those knitters that need to go down a needle size on my k2p2 ribbing since it's so much looser than my stockinette or other pattern stitches, 'cept maybe lace?

- I like Grumperina's pretty way to pick up gusset stitches, but I purposely neglected to pick up the extra stitches a la Charlotte Schurch's (Sensational Knitted Socks) method and ended up w/ honkin' holes in my socks. I can either call them design elements or fix them on the second sock. Still debating w/myself.