Yarn! Yarn! Yarn!

I'm back from my amazing trip to the Canadian Rockies, and I went a little crazy while in Canmore at the Knit & Caboodle yarn store, and bought a ton of sock yarn!

So it might not be too much to some... but 8 hanks of yarn (5 of them being sock yarn) is quite a lot to me. My favorites are the madelinetosh (DK) and Anzula Squishy. I plan to use the madeleinetosh to make a bulkier pair of socks, and 2 hanks to make the Ocean Waves Scarf with it.

As I was in the car on the way to the airport in Calgary the next day I realized I should have purchased enough to make a matching hat and mittens (I currently have no matching set). So, when I got home I checked where to purchase the yarn and discovered there was a store right in downtown Ottawa - Yarns etc. - so I bought 3 more hanks. The yarn is Manos del Uruguay, so there are no dye lots. The winter gear will be my next project. I have almost completed the baby blanket for my friend. I only have 5 more inches left!! I never realized how long it takes.

On the sock front I have completed 1 sock, which was too big for my foot. I was working with Patons Basic Sock Pattern from their Next Steps Four: Socks and Slippers. I used the smallest dimensions (I have small feet) and they were still too big. So I looked up a bunch of calculators and am trying a second sock. It's looking good so far except for two little holes on either side of my foot where I picked up stitches. I needed to have picked up 1 or 2 more and there would have been no hole!

I'd like to get a book which talks about sizing, because the math is too much for me sometimes. Any suggestions would be great. I thought about Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Sock Book, or Sock Innovation, but the reviews for them were not that great. Also, while Sock Innovation has beautiful patterns, a few reviews mentioned there was no information about sizing. I read a few reviews for the book Sock Club: Join the Knitting Adventure, and it sounds like it might be promising.