Socks, Baby.

So last weekend was Sock Summit which by all reports was crazy and overwhelming and wonderful. I wasn't there. Sort of disappointing but realistically it was just too far to go. Of course had the summit taken place at this time last year I would have been a few hours away by car. Alas.

I did think of Tina and the Blue Moon ladies though while working on my socks. Blue Moon Socks that Rock (lightweight) in Garden Daze:


This was the yarn for the July shipment of the Rockin' Sock Club. It is very, very far outside of my usual colour family but I liked it as soon as I opened up the package. So far I have been letting my sock club yarn mellow in stash a bit, in fact a few earlier shipments have not yet been cast on. Not so this, I cast on a couple of days after it showed up. Unfortunately the club pattern and I were not seeing eye to eye. It's a lovely pattern, but I thought it obscured the colours and I was getting some unfortunate pooling. Sometimes a really pretty handpaint just want to be a plain vanilla sock. So it is (with a little picot cuff thrown in for variation). I am zooming through these, not least because I can't wait to wear them no doubt alarming my friends and co-workers.

Another reason it is probably best I did not make it to Sock Summit: I would almost certainly have bought sock yarn and I don't really need more sock yarn. Being in the sock club fills the hand-painted niche very nicely so I've bought some solid colours lately but not much else.

Working in a yarn shop is not without its hazards and going home with more yarn than pay is one of them. Now that I've been there for a while though the effect has changed. I'm at the yarn store all the time. I'm surrounded by the lovely yarn all the time. The yarn fumes have lost some of their power perhaps but mostly I have gotten over that feeling that "If I don't buy it right mow I might never see this yarn again" feeling. The yarn is always there and even if a particular yarn or colour goes away more yarn will come to fill its place.

All very nice and philosophical sounding. We'll see how well this has held up in October, after Rhinebeck.

Socks aside it's been all gift knitting lately. Which of course does not make for good blogging, as some of the recipients read here from time to time. The gift of the moment should be safe; another apple hat for another anticipated baby.

Adam is flying west this weekend for work and hopes to have a chance to visit friends who have just announced they are expecting their first in February. One apple hat coming up. Cast on at Pub knitting on Wednesday and should be done this afternoon (I need to burrow into the stash to find a few yards of brown for the stem).

Blogger tells me that this is the 100th post since I started this blog a little over two years ago, which doesn't sound like a very good pace. Just have to keep going, I guess.

Not Again

I had such high hopes for my twice-weekly blogging plan (which in itself should have been a warning sign ....) and it's fallen off the rails before it's even really begun. No time to moan about it though, better to just get back on track.

A number of things conspired to keep me away from the blog. One of our computers coughed quietly once or twice and then died unexpectedly the other day. This throws himself and I all out of whack: We're nerds (as you may have noticed by now) and being down to less than one computer/Internet portal per person is not a good plan. The whole things is made more vexing by the fact that the deceased machine was purchased less than a year ago. However it seems that the nice folks who made the overpriced brick are going to make good. We'll just see how that turns out.

In happier news actual knitting has been keeping me away from the blog somewhat too. As you may recall I dodged the holiday knitting bullet and now the knitting goddess is, predictably, exacting revenge. Since the holidays I've always had at least one "obligatory" knit on the needles. Now it could be worse, certainly, and I'd still rather knit for all of these occasions than just buy something, but my selfish inner knitter wants to hide away and work on things for memememe. And there is one thing for me, the as-yet-un-named pink vest. I was making good progress on it for a while but now it's semi-stalled right in the middle of the bust-darts.

those stitch markers look like rather odd nipple rings in this photo, sorry

I like working on it and I like how it's coming out, but other things have been pushing themselves to the top of the pile lately.

I finished the boot socks for Dad (who reminds me he never reads my blog anyway, so I can post pictures). Pretty standard stuff, but my Dad is not one for interesting foot coverings.


My husband, on the other hand (or should it be foot) has no such constraints. He needed more heavy socks and we had this worsted weight self-patterning stuff in at the shop. I had to buy a couple of balls just to see. You can just see a few of his board-game boxes in the back there, he calls these his Spiele Socken.


Vivid no? The repeat is super-long so I didn't bother trying to start them in the same place or anything. I actually sort of like that they don't match, it seems like they shouldn't, somehow.

With those done I'm zipping through a birthday gift with another to follow closely behind. Those are secret though, so no pics yet. None of this is tedious knitting or anything, I just want to work on my vest again! Whine whine.

Also crimping things a little is the fact that my energy has been kind of low lately. As I write Kingston is in the grips of it's umpteenth serious snow storm of the season, with about 20 cm (that's 7.8 inches for you imperial hold-outs) falling today. It's kind of pretty and fun the first few times it happens but when it's on a Wednesday at the end of January and you have to go to work...well the thrill is gone. It is cold and dark and nasty and everything that winters in Canada predictably are but I'm just tired of it.

However it is good knitting weather and I have lots of that to get through. And lots to look forward to including some experiments in different fibery-arts and planning a knitting retreat in the spring. Which can't come soon enough.

Back To It

Things are still looking a little messy here at consolations, but it's time to get back to it I think. As well as spiffing up the blog there has been knitting going on.

I finished off Adam's latest pair of socks last week. They actually worked up more quickly than I anticipated, what with the legs being knit on 2.0 mm needles. But ultimately they didn't take any longer than other textured patterns. I really like the pattern, and I'm looking forward to working more of Anne's patterns very soon.

Tears of Offler socks
raveled here

At the same time that I've been refreshing the blog , I've been weeding through my Ravelry queue with a firm hand. Both taste and circumstance change and I had to come to grips with the fact that there were items on there which, no matter how lovely, were never going to be knit by me. Some things stand the test of queue time and I have cast on for the vest which had been sitting in the number one spot for some time. No photos yet, as there isn't much to show, but I'm glad to be working on a garment again.

Also waiting for a photo session is the Thermis cowl. It is done and since this shot has even had its buttons sewn on. A very enjoyable knit as well as a timely finished object, since we are in the midst of a deep freeze here in Ontario at the moment. However it is possible that I am not as elegantly long-necked as some; when I wear this it comes up around the bottom of my ears. I like it though, and can see knitting more of these, even if only as gifts.


Speaking of gifts, the Winter Apple baby did indeed arrive shortly after the knitting was complete and is a little boy. I'm sure he'll be sweet in his little apple hat.

Most of the knitting this month seems destined to be foot coverings for the men in my life. I've just finished a pair of boot socks for my Dad (sorry, no photos till they're in the mail) and cast on a pair for my husband. These heavy-weight socks do go quickly, which is a nice change. Another, more secret, project needs to be done by the end of the month as well.

It was nice to have a bit of a break from regular blogging, but it will be good to get back to it as well. I am hoping to post at least twice a week, but I won't make any promises just yet. There have been so many changes in the last four months and I'm not all that resilient to changes. But things seem to be leveling out (knock wood) and calming down and the pace of things is becoming familiar. I just need to figure out what to slot back into the schedule and what might be better left out. I probably won't get this right on the first try, but I'm working on it.

Rockin

Despite the blog silence there has been a lot of knitting going on around here. Even though I'm not knitting for Xmas this year I'm still pushing to get things finished (mostly so I can start new things...you know).

I've been working away on this wee baby cardigan which is going quickly thanks to it's tiny size and clever top down raglan construction.


It's actually even further along that this now, but it was at this stage that daylight and my being at home actually came together for long enough to allow for photography. The bairn it is being knit for is due soon (and will, I suspect, be early) so this, and the little hat to go with it are a top priority.

The socks are coming along too. The pattern looks really complex but is really just a sort-of offset rib so as long as I can remember what row I'm on it's pretty simple and not as slow as i had feared. The first one is nearly to the toe and I'm hoping to make good progress on the second no with a few days off over the holidays.


In other sock news I've signed up for the Rockin Sock Club for 2009. I hummed and hawed about it for a while but Himself and I came to an agreement - he got a new PSP and I signed up for the Sock Club (and he gets at least one pair of the resultant socks). Marriage is all about compromise I'm told.

The paper whites also are making a sprint for the finish. After doing nothing at all for a couple of weeks they suddenly decided to go for height. Curious. There are a couple of little flower spikes on there though, so it looks like we should have a couple of blossoms in time for Christmas.

Happy Solstice Everyone!

Updates and Finished Objects

Update 1: Furniture. Yes our furniture and things finally arrived a little over a week ago. The whole experience ended up being an exercise in frustration and ridiculousness and an object lesson in why people hate to move. As much as I would like to go into detail the memory of it all is still too fresh (and there is a good chance that litigation is still to come) so it will have to wait for another day. Also it is so nice to be eating off a table sitting in a chair that it feels like tempting fate to grouse too much.

Update 2: Wedding Shawl. Still a lace blob, so I'll spare you the photos but well on the way to completion. Only ten rows of chart and four rows of edging to go (plus the bind-off, which I am refusing to contemplate for the moment, you all understand). Feeling good about this one (which is a good thing since we leave for out wedding in a shocking eight days.

Update 3: Non-knitting wedding stuff. Meh. A few people have asked why I haven't shared more of my wedding planning on the blog. My standard response is that it's meant to be a knitting blog. I read a lot of knitting blogs and it doesn't appeal to me when someones knitting blog morphs into a wedding blog or a pregnancy blog or whatever.

If I'm honest though it's more complex than that. This whole wedding planning thing just isn't fun. Or at least it isn't for me. I've seen the TV programs and the magazines and all these people who devote months and months of their lives to their weddings and I sort of assumed that at some point in the planning the magic Martha switch in my head would trip and that I too would become obsessively concerned with napkin rings and recessional music. Maybe I even wanted it too a little bit (I have this lingering feeling that I'm missing out on something) but it never happened.

This Saturday we engaged in a little wedding-related craftiness that had nothing at all to do with yarn.

not yarn

I can't even tell you how cool this was. We had booked months ago with Sarah at The Devil's Workshop to make our wedding bands. Ourselves. Neither of us has any experience with this sort of thing but the workshop was great and the whole process ended up being very profound.


It's not knitting, but finished objects none the less. I still can't believe we made them ourselves, the sense of satisfaction is great and I think Adam got a little peek into the whole DIY ethos. Rings are almost universally symbolic and wedding bands even more so. Spending a day together in the midst of all the craziness crafting the rings that we'll exchange on that day was time well spent.


And since I never know when enough is enough I'm knitting a pair of marryin' socks for himself. My very first visit to Wool Tyme here in Kingston yielded an absolutely perfect skein of Malabrigo (mmmmm) Sock. He's worth it.


For my fellow Canadians: Please vote today. Vote your conscience, vote strategically, vote however you'd like, but please vote. It really does matter.

Lace Blob and FO

We're slowly getting settled into our new place - at least as settled as people without furniture can be. Yup, more than two weeks after arriving we are still sleeping on the floor and getting increasingly frustrated with the moving company that told us five to ten days. However they say they're going to be here on Friday. Fingers crossed.

Knitting activity is also getting back to normal. I didn't even touch the wedding shawl for over a week while we were in the worst of the moving and traveling, it takes way more concentration than I possessed at that time. I've gotten back to it in the past week and yesterday it looked like this.


Not too different, I know. It really is bigger though and today I have moved on to chart B which promises a little more variety. The going is somewhat slow and the rows have passed the 300 stitch point but it's fun to work on and diverting as well, which is what I need right now.

I did manage to finish a pair of winter socks for Adam. These were my mindless project for the times when exhaustion and travel and craziness took over my brain. Worsted weight socks are a quick-knit anyway and while it isn't winter here yet, you can feel it coming.

Cable Twist Socks (Hello Yarn)
Patons Classic Merino Natural Mix
Raveled here

The pattern here is actually a mock-cable formed with slipped stitches. A little fussy to work but easier than breaking out the cable needle. Also a little less "lumpy" than a true cable, which is probably a good thing in a sock of this weight.

I'm feeling like a pretty negligent blogger lately, I must admit. Only two posts for all of September. I want to do better in October but I also have to leave for my wedding in less than three weeks, so I probably shouldn't be making any promises. I do hope that in the coming weeks I'll have time to tell you all more about our new home and our new town and all of the exciting things that are going on. I should also be getting reacquainted with my stash and my books and all the things that got packed away when I moved to France - which should provide plenty of ideas and posts and additions to the queue.

Autumn always feels like a time of beginnings to me and this one even more so. There should be plenty to write once there is time for writing.

Ravelympic Wrap-up

It was a close-run thing, but I made it.

Yarrow Ribbed Socks
from Knitting Vintage Socks
Berroco Alpaca Fine colours 1288 and 1285

So far 551 sock put participants have posted their finished items on Ravelry! And team Ankh-Morpork Knitters Guild came through with 40 finished objects, only slightly behind our arch-rivals over at team Hogwarts.

At the moment my primary feeling about these socks is relief that they're done. They still need a wash and patting out, but they look nice. I'm a little unsure about the toe, which Nancy Bush calls the French Toe. Instead of having two decrease points, with one at either side of the foot, it has three decrease points and sort of swirls up to the top. It was interesting to knit but I'm curious to see how it fits, both in shape and in length - the feet on these ended up being a bit shorter than most of Adam's socks. Alas it will be another three weeks or so before he can try them on.

Toe aside the pattern was clear and straight-forward if not especially interesting. It's a good boy-sock pattern though, and those aren't always easy to find. The yarn is nice and soft and fuzzy without being too fuzzy. It's also kind of splitty (not crazily so, but enough to make you pay attention) and very fine. I knit these on 2.25mm needles and probably could have gone tighter. The suggested needle size on the ball band is 3mm, which I am guessing is not a sock-based recommendation. Certainly at my tension a 3mm needle would have made for some very open results.

The socks are a mediumish Men's size and I have quite a bit of each colour left over. If I reversed the main and contrasting colours I think I could get another pair from the yarn easily, so it was a good value. It will be interesting to see how they wear and whether the Alpaca content makes them noticeably warmer than 100% wool.

No time to rest on my victory though, I'm hoping the yarn for my wedding shawl will arrive early this week and that will be a whole new saga, no doubt.

Nearly....

State of the Ravelympics socks:


Nearly to the toe on the second one. I think I'm going to make it.

State of The Moozer:


Clipped, clean and not at all "doggy". Will it last?

Isn't it Yarn Pr0n Friday?


Misti Alpaca Laceweight, bought at the Make One Studio in Calgary. They had a great selection of Misti Laceweight, but just this lone skein of black. I had to take it. Not sure what it wants to be yet, perhaps one of Anne's little nothings?

Photographing black yarn: Kind of vexing.

Ravelympics Update

With four days to go I am behind schedule again.


I can't believe that for the last Olympics I knit a sweater and this time I seem to be struggling to get through a pair of socks. I think it's back to late-night marathon knitting for me; maybe I still have a chance. At least I can multi-task and get caught up on podcasts.

Ravelry members can look here to see all the amazing people who have already crossed the Ravelympic finish line.

I have been busy, but not insanely so. I have time to knit but it seems that other things sneak in. With less than a month before we move there is always something that feels urgent. Normally I'd knit to take the edge off these times, but lately I've sometimes been too frazzled even for that. I'd best get back on track though because the yarn for my wedding shawl is on the way and reality is finally starting to sink in. I've got a lot on my plate.

With all this going on I'm not making it to any fiber festivals this summer. But my Mom, Lynne and her friend Linda are going to be at Stitches this weekend manning the Swallow Hill booth. If you're going please stop by and say Hi. And if you're not going to Stitches but need to flex your credit cards a bit anyway Tina at Blue Moon has posted her new colourways (whimper).

Wish me luck for the home stretch!

Hindsight is 20/20

I suffered an early setback in the Ravelympics on day two when I had to frog all work completed to that point and start again. With a different pattern.

The pattern I started of with had a sweet little twisted stitch cable detail. Fun to work and (in theory) a nice non-fussy accent for a boy sock. It was all printed off and laid out with the yarn ready to go on Friday. Unfortunately it soon became clear that this yarn and this pattern were not meant to be together.

The Alpaca Fine is soft and lovely to be sure, but it is soft and lovely because it is somewhat loosely spun and has a very slight halo. And the main colour for this project, Blueberry, is also lovely but is a dark, light-sucking blue. The result, completely unsurprisingly to everyone with an ounce of sense (but not me), is that the sweet little twisted stitch detail was lost completely and the rest of the sock was looking a little floppy.

I slept on it Friday night (not literally because: pointy!) and in the light of the morning knew I had to rip. Fortunately I was only a few inches in. Needing a new pattern quickly I did what I should have done in the first place (ah, hindsight) and dug out my Nancy Bush books and choose a nice simple-but-interesting ribbed pattern. A solid weekend of knitting and I'm back on track.


Since speed is of the essence I've gone back to aluminium needles for these socks. I actually started the ill-fated pattern on some Inox double points I picked up last month. The Inoxes are steel, which is wonderfully smooth and pointy but (since the laws of physics apparently still apply) WAY heavier that aluminium. They'd be manageable for a nice hard spun wool being worked tightly but they just weren't playing well with this yarn and I feared that I would be courting hand pain with the marathon sessions the Ravelympics demand.

So far today real life has interfered cruelly with knitting time, but I think that if I can finish the leg and knit the heel flap by Wednesday morning I might be able to have sock 1 done by the end of the week. Knit knit knit.

Good News Everyone.....

We're back! Not back in France, but back on Vancouver Island visiting my parents and back to a good high-speed connection and being in the same place for more than 12 hours at a time.

I think this July is turning out to be a bit of a lost month. I've had so much to do and so many demands on my time that the days seems to have passed incredibly quickly. It's mostly been a lot of fun, but I haven't had a lot of time for regularly scheduled activities like knitting.

I let my blogiversary go by un-noted this month. I didn't intend to, I remembered on the day and everything. It's just that I spent most of the day driving from Lilooet to Squamish and finding enough wireless to blog would have meant fighting it out with the beautiful people in Whistler. Meh.


The slurm socks did get finished, proving yet again that doing a round or two here or there really does add up to a finished sock. The pattern (Charade by Sandra Park) is wonderfully hypnotic and has no purling at all in the leg and foot. I think it could translate to a good boy sock as well. I don't think I need to say anything about the yarn (Socks That Rock lightweight) except that it remains my favorite sock yarn ever. This was my first time working with one of the nearly solid colourways and I can't wait to use another one. For the record, the colour is a little closer to true in the first photo (the second was taken at twilight in shade).


The Captain Carrot scarf has also grown some - though it turns out fingering weight scarves don't go quite as quickly as one might hope. It is pleasingly mindless though and as such is good tv/car knitting. I'm only about halfway through the first 100g skein of this yarn (I have three) and I'm thinking that unless himself wants a really long scarf one skein is going to do it. I may save the other two skeins and see what sort of gauge I can get holding it doubled - perhaps a matching hat someday?


Someday is a word we're using a lot lately. That and 'after October'. Our wedding is now less than 100 days away (ack!) and we've got quite a lot of excitement coming up even before then. I can't spill all quite yet, but it's going to be a crazy few months here at chez consolations, it's all to the good though.

Next time I should have some holiday snaps as well as some new stash to flash. It's good to be back.

The Knitter Alone

Himself has gone off to Britain for a few days, and though disappointed not to be accompanying him, I'm coping with my usual aplomb.


I cannot stop knitting these socks! Sometimes one yarn and one pattern converge into something truly wonderful.

If you haven't already, please take the time to read (and consider) Franklin's post from Tuesday. It is moving and important and there is nothing I can possibly add.

Everybody Loves STR

There are so many good sock yarns out there these days (trust me on this, I've tried a few) but Socks That Rock is something special. I don't know what kind of mad chemistry the ladies over at Blue Moon use, but I hope they keep doing it. Just winding the skein of STR lightweight into a ball was enchanting - so soft and smooth and evenly spun.


The diffinition in this twisted rib is wonderful. I'm being selfish and starting a pair for myself, the first in months. The colour is actually slightly more lurid in real life that it appears here (if you can believe it) and has led these to be coined the slurm socks. The nerdy runs deep at our house.

There were no organized events here for World Wide Knit in Public Day, but I did manage a little on my own.
The knitting goddess smiled on us and it was nice to have a little sunshine for knitting in the park. Unfortunately the reprive was temporary and the rain is back today.

The vanilla cardi is ready for its bath and the greenwood blanket is less that 40 pattern rows from completion. After a couple of weeks of feeling like I've been knitting and knitting with no real progress it's nice that things are finally being wrapped up.

French shops, French Monks

An old friend has had a baby since I've been in France and I thought I'd whip up a quick little sweater to gift to her next month. I've got heaps of patterns for that sort of thing and figured it would be a nice, quick, fun project for odd moments and traveling. Normally a good stash-buster but I'm still many miles from my stash and so would need to buy yarn. Not exactly a hardship.

Well shouldn't be, at any rate. But I spent much of the afternoon questing about in search of 500m of worsted weight, machine washable yarn in nice colour for a red-headed little girl and was completely thwarted. To be fair one of the shops was in the midst of a going out of business sale and was pretty picked over, and I only received actively rude/hostile service at one of the three shops I tried (that counts as a good day here). But at the end of the day I came home not just without the yarn I wanted, but completely empty handed. I miss North American yarn shops and their variety.

Like so many things about France the yarn shops here aren't bad, necessarily, just different. I know that I came here and that it's up to me to adjust. Maybe I've not done a good job of that. I also miss fish and chips (with vinegar), saltines and Starbucks (heresy, I know). I could go on, but I won't.

So the baby sweater will have to wait and I'll knit from the ever-shrinking stash on hand. I carried this Socks That Rock lightweight here because the colour reminds me of Chartreuse and we live near the Chartreuse range (as well as the monastary where the legend began). Seems appropriate to begin to knit it here.


I know falling back on socks is hardly suprising for me.

In other news the knitting on the French Vanilla cardi is done! There are a few more ends to be woven (not many) and it need a good wash and block but the finish line is in sight on this one. I've had a few preliminary try-ons and I'm pretty happy with it. They'll be a real finished object post coming next week, but here's a little sneak peek.

mmmm, garter stitch goodness

Don't forget that Saturday, June 14 is World Wide Knit in Public Day. Please do so.

Stripey

It's been awhile since I've had a finished object to show you, but I hope that this is the first of several coming up in the next week or three.

Stripey Socks

Lang Jawoll Aktion 132.0206
Raveled here

No pattern for these, just my usual sock recipe on 72 stitches and worked in 3x1 rib. As mentioned previously, I experimented with fit a bit on these, making the ball of the foot slightly looser by increasing needle size. I did the legs and heels on 2.25mm and went up to a 2.5mm after the gusset decreases. I had Adam try them on before washing and there is a noticeable difference in the fit. It will take a few wearings to get a true verdict, I'm sure, but I'm happy with the results. I plan to revisit this idea soon.

The French Vanilla cardi is also very nearly finished, needing only a neckband and a little weaving. I can't believe how long it has taken me to knit this thing. In truth it hasn't been the knitting time, but the waiting for things time and the fact that it keeps getting shunted out of the top knitting-time spot. I'm still keen on the pattern and the way it's coming out, so I'm really looking forward to finishing it up and giving it a good wash and block.

Even the Greenwood is crawling towards completion, nearly through the 5th pattern repeat which means about 75% of the knitting is done. Still can't show you much though.


This all makes it sound as though I've been very productive but in truth I've been feeling scrambled and at odds a lot lately. Knitting helps, but I'm feeling the need for a new project or two ( I haven't even picked up a cable needle for months). We'll be on the road for, well, July and I'm already plotting my travel knitting.

Same again

Inside out (and not quite finished).


It's a pretty good description for how I've been feeling lately. Still waiting for all the things I was waiting for last week and the stress is starting to leak out. I put my back out yesterday doing nothing more acrobatic than hanging up a towel and have been moving slowly and confined to quarters ever since. Fortunately this has not effected knitting and I'm feeling much better this evening.

I have reached the point on the vanilla cardi where I can go no further until the needles arrive and I'm beginning to worry about where they are. This thing is taking forever, and if I can't complete it very quickly it's going to get shelved by some deadline knitting. I hate to even consider this - we'll see what gets here first, I guess.

On the up side the socks are seeing a lot of action. I'm doing a bit of experimenting with these. The pattern is pretty much my usual way of knitting boy socks, with a 72 st cast on. The difference is that I've decided to go up a needle size after the gusset decreases are complete. I've mentioned before that himself has rather wide feet, and they're widest in the couple of inches before the toes. Of course I could also just decrease fewer stitches at the gusset....maybe I'll try that next.

I worked most of the sock on 2.25mm dpns and then went up to 2.5mm. Only a difference of a quarter millimeter, yet the difference in gauge is immediately apparent. The fabric on the larger needles is a little floppier than I like for socks and I'll be interested to see how it wears.

The yarn is Lang Color Aktion and appears to be a limited edition colourway. I picked it up some time ago in Canada intending it to be a pair of Jaywalkers (pattern now found here) for myself. I made the mistake of leaving in plain view, however, and Adam adopted it. Like a lot of the Lang sock yarns it came with a cute little spool of reinforcing yarn tucked in the center. Great idea but matching up a self-striping pattern on the yarn and the thread is totally beyond my mental energy level at present and I'm not really fond of the way striping yarns look on flap heels. So the heels and toes are in some solid brown stash yarn and I'm actually very happy with the way it looks. They were in danger of being too stripey.

After a miserable wet April, May has brought summery sunshine and much higher temperatures. After what seemed like a long winter it's a welcome relief. I have to wait, a warm breeze helps me think that good things are on the way.

Hurry up and...

Wait.

It seems like waiting is going to be the theme of the week. Waiting for news, waiting for needles, waiting for yarn. In knitting, as in life, needing something additional before I can move forward. I've got a plan, but the fates might have plans too.

What do we do while we wait? We knit, of course (it helps keep the panic down).


I can still count to four. I can still make a sock. There is some peace in that.

Deadline

I did get a reasonable amount of knitting done while I was in Austria, I was on a deadline after all. Here we see the second of the grey socks in a moment of repose in our Viennese rental flat (which was fab).


The sock also went to one of the finest emporia of food and drink ever, Centimeter II*.


The tape measure you can see was not brought, that's printed on the menu. Centimeter II sells many of their foods and some of their beverages by the cm, you see. It is of course also handy for the visiting knitter. Though to be fair, Jaggermeister can lead to measuring inaccuracies.

We saw the hippos at the Imperial Tiergarten. The living ones were too busy practicing their (remarkably graceful) swimming to be photographed, but this little guy was an excellent stand in.


So by working away at a row or two here and there (some very lovely heres and theres) and leaving the toe to finish the morning after we returned home I did finish the socks on time. I may not be ready for the 52 pair plunge, but it turns out I can turn out a pair in a hurry if I need to.

Gentleman's Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern
by Nancy Bush (of course)
from Knitting Vintage Socks
Phildar Preface

Finished Monday, washed Tuesday and packed into another suitcase for another journey on Wednesday. I may be able to get some modeled shots when they return. As usual with Nancy the pattern is excellent, though I wish I'd made them slightly longer in the foot. In fact I'm sure I'll knit this pattern again.

Which leaves two questions: Does this mean that the vanilla sweater is finally getting some time and did I buy any yarn in Austria? It is and I did. Next post.

*the slight stirring you may have just heard was my friend Nemo actually finding something on the blog interesting for the first time....ever? Or possibly my Dad and Ragnar having a laugh at the wee Jager bottles.

Grey, grey, grey

Grey weather and grey socks are suiting my grey mood at the moment. Actually the sock yarn is great to work with and the pattern is diverting yet speedy. Already well into the foot of the first one.


And finally there is something to show on the french vanilla sweater. Not much progress, I know, but a start. I haven't had a lot of time to work on it yet, but I've enjoyed it when I have. Working top down in one piece means that the rows get long fairly quickly - I'm heading towards the shoulders here and if uninterrupted I can get in about four rows in an hour. Its been a while since I've worked at sweater scale.


I think my favourite thing about this project so far is the chance to use my new(ish) Knit Picks Harmony set. I love these needles. They're perfect for wrangling this very smooth yarn and the points are the best.

The grey mood does not allow for meditation upon the queue at the moment. I'm hoping that my soul will be soothed by a week of yarn and yummies in Austria. Blogging as connectivity allows.

Hardly ever

I did something unusual this weekend. I visited my Ravelry queue, called up the pattern in the number one position, and clicked the 'cast on' button. No, not the sweater, but the Gentleman's Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern, which had been languishing in said position for 5 months, apparently.

I needed a pair of travel socks to work and himself has an event coming up that might benefit from the luck and comfort of a new pair of socks. I have wanted to knit this pattern since I got the Knitting Vintage Socks book (as well as most of the patterns in it, but I digress). I love the subtle texture and the calf shaping. They're long though, calling for 550m of yarn, and for the intended situation need to be in a subdued colour so......


I bought yarn. French sock yarn! So far I'm liking it. This project is on a very short deadline, which is good both because it will keep me going, but also because it will limit the number of blog posts dominated by pictures of grey socks (again). The sweater will have to be started as well, if only for respite and blog fodder.


The satisfaction of casting on the top item in my queue was diminished slightly when I noticed that I still have over 30 items on the list. Many of them are small, but still. Wasn't I just saying something about needing to make a knitting plan? Now topping the queue: The Snail Mittens. They haunt me still.