I love watching NASCAR races. I was trying to remember how this came to be, and I think it stems from going with my family to Champ car qualifying days at Portland International Raceway when we could get free passes. My Dad and brother absolutely loved going, and Mom and I would tag along and sit under the makeshift lean-to awning and read – back when they would let you camp out for the day on the grassy banks around the track. There’s something about the sound and the excitement and unpredictability. What I like even better about stock car racing is that they smash into each other and into the walls and yet, many times, THEY STILL KEEP GOING, albeit with sheet metal flapping. Repairs are attempted with baseball bats and hammers. It just cracks me up. I also think I knit faster when I knit along with the races.

My contusion socks (thus named because of the dyed colors of the yarn – however, they seem to be knitting up to look more like the bottom of a mossy creek rather than a bruise, a good thing I guess) are really coming along. I figured out a way to knit both socks at the same time on one circular needle without ever touching a dpn – to readjust positioning or to knit up one side of one gusset like I was doing before. This is probably not a new concept, and if I had looked around on the internet, I probably would have found how to do it a lot sooner, but it was still a major “aha!” moment for me.

Yarn: Bare Essential
Needles: Knit Picks nickel plated 40″ fixed circular, US size 0
Dyes: Jacquard Acid dyes in chestnut, emerald, gold ocher and burnt orange
Pattern: my own <