Knitting with stretchy yarns

Dear readers,
A while back, my mother-in-law revealed a shocking piece of information. While my mother-in-law loves to knit, she is allergic to wool. Oh, the horror!
At the time, I was working on my mother's beautiful koigu socks. Koigu is made from merino, but it doesn't feel like wool. Not at all. Nevertheless, Jane (my MIL) stated her opinion that it was still scratchy (I'm really hoping that this wool allergy is not hereditary*).
Yet, being a thoroughly converted sock knitter, I still wanted to knit socks for Jane.
I found this delightful cream colored yarn- a cotton-lycra blend. It was stretchy and soft, unlike most cotton. I decided to purchase the yarn, intending socks for Jane.

I've started the socks, and friends, it is not pretty. The yarn is pretty enough in color and texture, but it stretches horribly. Which makes getting gauge impossible. I'm unsure if the socks will even fit her. Here's hoping, though, because I am loathe to frog the whole sock that I now have down to the middle of the foot.

I'm working on a cabling pattern, too, which complicates things in unanticipated ways.

I knit on the socks while I was in New York for my sister-in-law's wedding. It was beautiful, by the way. And the lace shawl that my MIL made for my SIL turned out to be gorgeous. It is definitely heritage knitting.

*Perhaps there should be a questionarre for potential marriage partners that includes the question: Does anyone in your family have a wool allergy?

Coming out of the haze

For you knitters out there, no, I'm not referring to Kid Silk Haze.

But for all of you adventuring people out there, I am speaking of the haze that one finds oneself in when in a foreign land. If you are confused by my term "foreign land" because you remember that I am in Toledo, then let me explain.

The North End of Toledo, where I live, is not like other places. Yes, we have stop signs and homes and even churches, but the North End is a place apart. I have never lived anywhere like it before. The paradoxes are myriad. Homes that look nice have no electricity- not because the wiring isn't there, but because there is no money to pay the bill. Children refuse to go to school, not because their homework isn't done (no one would give out homework anyway because students won't do it), but because their clothes don't look right.

Anyway, I'm writing this to say that I'm finally starting to see things a bit more clearly. Or at least it feels that way- like when a fog starts to burn off. I'm coming into the sunny days, even if the rain pours in real life.

On a fibery-goodness note, I completed my socks for Sock Wars 2006. I finished them at the Ohio ELCA Clergywomen's retreat at Our Lady of the Pines retreat center in Fremont, OH. It was very pretty there, and I made a friend. Kelly is a pastor in NE OH, which kind of sucks because she's far away. But I was delighted to meet her, so I hope we'll see each other soon.

The bad news is that my target has not emailed me with her address. So I have 2 socks, all done up and nowhere to go. I suspect that my target is being sneaky and refusing to send me her address so that she will not die.
I hope that Yarn Monkey will email me instead so that I may kill my target properly, before my assassin gets me.

In other fibery-goodness news, I'm almost done with another Christmas present. You heard me, I've got almost 2 done! With the amount of people in my family, though, that's not too great. I've got to get crackin'.