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My parents both went to the University of Washington. I almost did, too, deciding at the seemingly last minute to stay in California. I did grow up during my elementary school years in Bellingham, WA, a close enough drive to Seattle that we made it to quite a few football games, and I was definitely also a fan. Go Huskies!

I'd been looking for "Husky" yarn for a while, to make my dad a pair of socks. I had seen some purple and gold Lorna's Laces sock yarn, that I think was officially for another school but the same colors. I never found it to purchase, though, so I kept looking. Last week I finally thought to Google around some, and I found Myra Hansen of Fancy Image Yarn. She lives in Washington and hand-dyes yarn in many of the state's team colors, including UW. Success! Her customer service was great--great price ($16.00 including shipping for enough for one pair of socks), I got a friendly email from her, and she shipped practically as soon as I hit the Paypal button.

The yarn arrived yesterday, and I'm already past the heel on the first sock. It's DK weight so it's going quickly on US3 needles. I split the skein by weight into two balls and am finally forcing myself to figure out toe-up socks, so that I can make them as long as possible with the 250 yards that I have. Since I don't have my dad's foot here to measure (and it's a birthday gift), I'm going by what I know the length is, and doing a 2x2 rib for extra stretchiness and fit.

So far, so good! I tried it on M last night before the short-row heel, because his foot is about the same size as my dad's. And the starting of the toe, which is what I could never figure out successfully before, gave me no problems this time. I used Judy Becker's "Magic Cast On" from her Knitty.com article. Worked like a charm! I also had some trouble with picking up my short row wraps last time, and this time using Wendy's toe-up instructions now with excruciating detail (PDF), it seems to be working fine. So I'm happy! I love learning new things.

Oh, and it's Crazy Hair Day at C's school. I have Fridays off and there's a "parents welcome" assembly first thing when we get there, so J usually comes along. Of course he had to have crazy hair as well! Both boys ended up with colored mohawks--the crossing guard had spray cans of hair paint for anyone who wanted some. So C's hair is now orange on one side, blue on the other, and J's was purple. He's since taken a bath. Seeing all of the kids' (and teachers') hair at the assembly was a riot!