New toy, new yarn

I have a new knitting toy! Well, I guess "tool" would be a better word. My dad made this for me --


Does it have a name? I'm not sure what to call it. It's a piece of wood with 2 dowels, spaced 18" apart. When you wind yarn around it, each complete loop is 1 yard long. Perfect for measuring lengths of leftovers, or for reskeining frogged yarn.

The yarn pictured was once a sock, in fact the first sock I ever knit! I didn't like how it fit, so I frogged it. It then got a dunk in a warm soapy bath, and was hung up to dry in my shower, with a weight to remove the kinks. Eventually, I'll make it into a sock again, since the colors complement my wardrobe.

I also have some new yarn ... Louet Sales Opal in the Neptune colorway. Mmmm, 100% merino!


This is for the Whitby socks, from Knitting on the Road. These are for my dad's birthday, at his request. Well, I gave him a little push in the right direction :) I told him I wanted to knit him an accessory for his birthday, and happened to have this book with me. I showed it to him and he liked the Whitby pattern. He requested red yarn, wanting a pair of red socks to wear while watching the Red Sox. Little does he know that he is getting some Red Sox socks for Christmas! I convinced him that red was unavailable, and blue was a good substitute.

In addition to this, I have yarn for 5 more pairs of socks in my stash.

• Purple/blue handdyed from Mind's Eye Yarn, probably for the Traveler's Stockings from KOTR.


• Jawoll Jacquard, from Lang, in color 0158. That's the yarn pictured on my new tool above.


• Some Schaefer Anne in variegated blues and greens. I haven't decided what to do with this one yet. Maybe some Jaywalkers?


• One skein of Regia Mini-ringel in the Rio colorway. I think I might knit a pair of toe up socks and use the leftover red Silja yarn from my Red Sox socks project for contrasting toes, heels, and rbbing.


• I bought an extra skein of the neptune Opal shown above, and should have lots of leftovers from the Whitby's. I'm thinking of using it for some socks for me, or maybe for socks for my mother-in-law's Christmas gift.

Better get moving if I want some new socks!