Stephanie, As usual, I am LOL reading your blog. Those fair isle socks are gorgeous. I am convinced they are going more quickly, even though you knit fair isle more slowly, because it is so interesting to watch the pattern emerge. I am also pretty slow with stranded knitting -- I hold both yarns in my left hand but am still a newbie at it. I am working on some stranded mittens in the hopes of sharpening my skills there. Guess what, I am also using dpns instead of two circs (I use two circs for socks, and dpns for mittens. Huh?)

And the Barbie just made my day.

HAHA post-apocolyptic, punk rock barbie. I love it. OH and also, I loves me some straights you are not the last hold out.

I'm in agreement w/ Rob. Anything w/ patterning goes faster, just because it's more entertaining to watch it progress. The socks are beautiful!

As for Barbie...when I'm in yoga and the teacher is leading us through hip "openers" it always reminds me of the torturous way I used to move Barbie's legs around. So, no matter how you look at manipulating Barbie, it always comes out perverse.<<gg

Doing perverse things to Barbie is a necessary rite of passage -- my brother and I were quite inventive when it came to Barbie torture. :)

Add me to the list of dp lovers. I _loathe_ circular needles! Besides, it's fun seeing people's expressions when knitting a sock or a glove -- it's like holding a porcupine. (Am I a total dp freak for currently doing swatches on them instead of single-points?)

On two-color knitting -- it's strange returning to it after having been doing a lot of texture and pattern stitches. Still, the hand does seem to remember the process. (I do it all with the right hand; as I hold the yarn between thumb and finger when wrapping it, it doesn't matter much if I add additional colors -- I just have to make sure to pick the right color up.)

I _LOVE_ your socks. :)