Walking & Knitting

This morning I learned that I have the ability to walk and knit. Amazing? I know. I expected it to be much more difficult than it actually was. I think at one point I had discovered that I had added and extra stitch. No biggie. I just knit two together and carried on. Some of the ease could have come from the fact that it is a scarf that is only 10 stitches wide being knit on giant size 15 needles. However, it is a fun fur scarf for my niece so that in itself adds some extra frustration. I really enjoyed my walk to work this morning. I decided that I would let Walt sleep in and not bother him a bit until I kissed him goodbye. I started walking and said "Hey. I wonder if I can walk and knit??" I pulled out my scarf because I wasn't about to try it with Walt's socks on size 1 needles. Like I said, it was pretty successful. It's nice to find something to do in the 20-30 (time depends on how many baby alligators, turtles, bunnies, & dogs I am distracted by) minute walk to & from work. I feel less guilty working on the scarf then as well.

I am really making an effort to only knit on Walt's socks. He asked for them a while ago, but I really didn't wanted to alternate between a skein of black yarn & a skein of white yarn so I searched & searched for some self-striping black and white yarn which I was unable to find. So, I decided that I would dye my own. I hadn't ever dyed any yarn before but I thought taking white yarn and dyeing alternating sections black should be no problem. Then Julie told me about all the things that can go wrong with black dye. It being to purple or brown or just some yucky muddy color. Apparently, Jacquard doesn't use black pigment it is a mix of all sorts of colors. Julie kindly invited me over to help me with this process. I had already done my calculations ahead of time to determine how many yards would be needed per stripe (I just love my math-y side). Julie then measured out the length of yarn using a nose to fingertips technique. I started wrapping it around (hmmm....not sure what that thing was) this PVC knitting contraption. Once finished I decided what side to dye black and what side to leave white. Julie said adding some navy blue dye would really help get a black color and avoid the muddy brown. Once the yarn was in the pot we then began to peel apples for some apple pie. I was really impressed by my sudden ability to be able to peel apples so quickly and nicely with a plain old knife. Next, thing we knew it was time for knit night and off we went yarn still in the pot (we turned it off). They yarn didn't come out muddy brown but it was more of a dark gray than black. So I went home and a few days later after picking up some vinegar I redyed the black part and it looked perfect. I was really nervous about felting the yarn as it isn't superwash, but all was well. It then took me several weeks to get up the courage to actually wind the yarn. As I don't have a swift or any other fancy knitting equip and my center pull ball skills are a bit lacking. It turned out to not be such a terrible task and my ball looks okay. After that I got caught up knitting a birthday scarf. Then a knit along. A baby hat. A baby shower cake. And well the list goes on. So once I was actually able to cast on his socks I have tried to avoid touch any other project.
Walt's sock thus far: