Say when

Sometimes you've just got to admit when you've gotten it wrong and cut your losses. As enchanted as I was with the Shepherd Sock in Red Rover, the more time I spent with it, first photographing it and then casting on the socks, the less comfortable I started to feel. An inch or so into the ribbing I had to face facts. Parts of the Red Rover colourway are, in fact, pink. Oh I told myself it was just a bit of a faded red and remembered Meg Swanson's advice to "tell him it's raspberry". But in the cold light of the full spectrum lamp there was no way to deny it. Pink.

It wouldn't have bothered me were the socks going to a female friend or relative, but boys don't wear pink socks. So I frogged the little bit of ribbing, rewound the yarn and tucked it away in the stash. It's still lovely, it just needs to find the right project.

Adam still needs new socks, so there was a small falling down of the Fleece Artist kind. A skein of Somoko in Earth. So soft and lustrous. The colourway actually reminds me of coffee beans in all their stages. There's a little bit of green in there that looks like the fresh beans and it drifts through a golden caramel and on into rich browns. The darkest points have that silk sheen which is evocative of that slightly oily look of dark espresso roast.


And the hand is just beautiful. There is a bit of kid in there, but there is very little halo and it has enough nylon in it that it doesn't feel fragile. Too early for a full review yet, but if all goes well this one could go on the sock yarn lurve list.

The only downer is that it didn't suit the ringwood pattern at all. I'm working it in a nice, simple garter rib. And there's still a surprising thing about this project, which will have to wait one more post.