Last night I turned on the DIY channel to catch a repeat of Knitty Gritty, and who was the guest designer? Non other than Shetha Nolke of Oregon Live: Knit One, Blog Two and Simplicitly Stitched showing off her illusion knitting designs. Very cool! You GO Shetha! I might be inspired to start yet another project (oh no!).

On my own knitting front, I have about 10″ done of the back/left front/right front of the Sensational Shirttail sweater. You know how they say that knitting is like meditation? Well, I can knit about two rows on this thing and I start falling asleep. Yep, I fall asleep meditating, too.

Since the sweater is a little bulky to haul around, I started a new pair of socks, too. OK… that’s my excuse anyway. I’m (sort of) using a pattern from Lucy Neatby’s book Cool Socks, Warm Feet. Ms. Neatby includes a pattern called “Mermaid Socks,” and my stash just happens to include some Blue Moon Fibers Soft Rock in a colorway called “Mermaid.” Fate? I thought so! And I promised #1 Son a pair of socks for his girlfriend E.

Except the pattern is for a top-down sock with a spiral-pattern toe. And I knit all of my socks toe-up. That means I’m knitting the pattern backward. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of doing the toe and starting with the pattern from the get-go. I’ll post a pic when I get a little further. I’m going to be asking for opinions about what I should do for the heel. The book suggests a garter-stitch short-row heel, but I’m not sure that will look good with the “Estonian fishtail” pattern. I think it should be a short-row heel. But garter? That I’m not so sure about.