Christabel asked what a honeybadger is:

I’m not sure delightful is the right word. They’re crazy viscious animals, listed in the 2002 guinness book of records as the world’s most fearless animal. They’re ace. Heehee, and a bit of a long running theme in my friends conversations, for some reason or another. They have a website (of course): http://www.honeybadger.com/ just in case you feel the need to find out more.

As for where to get elasticy cotton sock yarn, I’ve never used any but here are a few of the places on my ‘when I’m rich and yarn money is no object I’ll order copius amounts from list’. It’s a mighty long list. But I have a few patterns I want to put up soon, that I’m just finishing up and I have a yarn dyeing spree planned in a couple of weeks so maybe soon I’ll have more yarn money. Hmmm… there’s something odd about selling yarn to buy more, oh well. Food still (kind of) comes first. Anyways the elasticy cotton sock yarn dealers:

These etsy sellers both do handyed cotton lycra blend sock yarn: TwoWaters.etsy.com and GreenwoodFiberworks.etsy.com

Elann esprit seems to have a similar fibre content and comes in a wide colour range.
Cascade fixation seems very similar to the Elann esprit.

Gaugewise the last two seem closer to somewhere between a 4ply and doubleknit weight. Or between what http://www.yarnstandards.com/weight.html calls weights 2 and 3. However I have my suspicions (hmm… wonderful word choice that!) that the hand dyed ’sock’ yarns with a finer guage may well be the same yarn, I doubt very much that there are too many manufacturers making this yarn and all of it looks the same. Due to the lycra content the yarn is stretchy, and when stretched will be finer, so I think that the guage would be pretty variable depending on the needle size and the amount of tension it is knitted under. But as I said I haven’t used any of these, I just want to. If someone who knows what they’re talking about wants to jump in go ahead.
And Fiona, yes I do mean socks like kids wear. Knee high socks are a staple part of my wardrobe, and I’d love to make some for summer. I actually have a vintage pattern for lacy white schoolgirl socks that I’ve been planning on making for a while. I also have a few pairs of white schoolgirl socks, and have been known to wear them, but my favourites are baby pink and grey. H&M and TKMaxx seem to be the best sources. It’s probably not a look for everyone, but looking like a manga character or 12 year old doesn’t really bother me. Ok I don’t look 12, but I can certainly be mistaken for around 15. I figure I’ll appreciate this more when I’m 40 and look 30. Given that I look like my father’s mother this seems probable. He has photos of her in her 50s and she could easily be in her 30s in them. He also has a photo of one of his sisters, his mother, himself and his neice. I couldn’t figure out who on earth the little girls were, until he pointed out that the one who looked about 12 was the toddlers mother, and was actually in her mid twenties. (I have problems keeping track of who half the people in my family are anyway - I have 30 first cousins). So I guess these genes are a positive thing, and for the moment I’m going to continue with the dressing like a crazy cartoon little girl thing for a while longer.

I spent most of last week trying to settle on a design to submit to the next Stitch n bitch book. I finally decided on something that I love and then spent the weekend frantically knitting a large fair isle swatch. I’m pretty uncertain about whether it will make the book, but I love it so that will have to do. I’m off to buy some yarn for the knitty project now. I want to get the knitting and pattern done over the next few days because next week is going to be very busy. This Friday is Emerald’s birthday (I should really make her a gift, oh and Em is one of my flatmates - and yes that’s her real name), I’m going to Venice on sunday with my mum (a particularly belated but for good reasons 18th birthday present), I get back on Wednesday night and then Saturday is the knitty deadline, but given that it is also my 21st I don’t really want to spend the day putting a pattern submission together. Funnily enough. The day after my birthday is Jamie’s (my surrogate flatmate and photographer, seriously he spends more time in the flat than any of us do). The fact that me, Emerald and Jamie are so close in age, and have so much in common (esp. egos!) is probably the only reson I’ll ever believe that there might be something in astrology. Talking of birthdays my great aunt Kitty who the liberty fabric in Matilda Jane came from shares my birthday, apparently we’re quite similar.

Anyway I’m off to buy some yarn, knit and go see Brick. I’m hoping to have the Cloud Bolero and armwarmers patterns up before I go, but I’m not sure if that’s going to work out or not. I’m planning on charging for the bolero, but I’m not mercenary enough to bring myself to charge anyone for the something as simple as the armwarmers pattern. I’ve been doubting whether I can charge for the bolero, but I’m trying to value my time more, and given that doing the pattern (regardless of the fact that it’s pretty simple and any experienced knitter could probably knock it off without the pattern) takes several hours of work, I’ve convinced myself that being paid for that is reasonable. And hey I need to eat (and buy cotton elastic blend sock yarn so that I can report my thoughts on it to you , yes that’s why I need it - it’s a public service, umm yeah).