Waste No Time

Why wait to cast on a new pair of socks, when I have so many ideas and so much yarn?


I decided to try another of Cat Bordhi's ingenious designs, next -- her Coriolis pattern (ravelry) and started out by making a type of toe that I've never tried before. She calls this the Moccasin toe and it's pretty darn comfy. Hopefully the rest of the sock will follow suit.

Candy Floss Socks

It's a shame that this yarn isn't available for sale, anymore, since it is such a soft and fluffy wool -- the stitches all came out so even and tidy, and it was a real pleasure to knit. Another factor for pleasurable knitting: I was using my new Knit Picks nickel-plated circulars, and knitting the socks magic-loop style. The stitches slid so smoothly along the needle and helped the knitting go fast.

There is a slow spiral of the colours which was totally unintentional on my part, and yet somehow they even seem to match up between the two socks -- a delightful surprise. I hope that they will stand up to use because I like them a lot. They fit perfectly and seem warm and toasty.

Call Me Square

I was flipping through a book of brownie recipes the other night (not the smartest idea for a weak-willed lover of sweets, I will admit) and tucked near the back of the book, I found this recipe for squares.


See that delicious goo leaking out from the center? It's meant to be a mixture of peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk, but I decided to go one step more extravagant and substituted cashew butter. They are unbelievably delicious. The base and topping have chopped walnuts and rolled oats, with a generous smattering of milk chocolate chips over everything.

I bet you can almost taste one, already.

The Swag of Years Gone By

I used to shop for handpainted sock yarn on ebay, scrolling through pages and pages of colours. I built up my stash that way. Recently I dug out a skein from long ago, to try to whittle away a bit at that stash. The now-defunct brand is No No Kitty, which was the first thing I loved about it when I saw it. The colourway was called Hair, which is the second. Over the years, I have come to see it less as an assortment of colours from that musical, but more like candy floss. Besides, "Hair Socks" sounds less delicious than "Candy Floss Socks".


I needed to clear my palate from the last pair of socks I got bogged down in, so I cast these ones on in my standard Universal Toe-Up Formula, with the tiny variation of garter-stitch toe, heel, and cuff. The slow swirl of the stockingette is meditative, especially since my other project (the yoke sweater) is also in stockingette. Is it weird how much I enjoy it?

Knetted Socks

For some reason, these seemed to take forever. It's not that they were hard, because they weren't -- just a simple slip stitch diamond pattern that was really easy to remember, with a few wrapped stitches here and there to break up the pooling. And it's not that they were boring, since the yarn is so beautiful and the design is so unique. Somehow I just kept getting distracted (or catching a cold) and not knitting them. Once I was halfway through the second sock, I caught a second wind and finished them off in no time flat.


These socks are designed by Cat Bordhi, which you know means you're in for an experiment. They are knit from the top down, but without a standard heel flap. You do some increases to make them wider, so they fit over your heel and partly over the top of your foot, all the way to the floor. Then you do her 'underheel' which involves a heel turn and then a bunch of twisted stitches that sit under your heel. Then a pretty standard stockingette foot, followed by a funky circular toe. Crazy, right?

They fit well, albeit a bit baggy at the ankle. And you can see that I had some pooling on the foot of one, but the other one only has stripes. Unique and beautiful, just as they should be.

Lace-Tipped Striped Scarf

I'm back to making some progress in my life -- I managed to finish off a couple of the lingering books, as well as the sweater sleeves. I've made a bit more progress on the second Knetted sock, as well. Most importantly, I have finished the stripey mohair scarf.

I've been working on this pretty much exclusively at the pub knit night, which explains why it took so very long to complete it. It is a bit curly, of course, being stockingette, but less curly after blocking it. The stitches evened out nicely and the lace opened up... Overall I'm pretty happy with it.


The blue yarn is the mohair blend; the yellow yarn is a merino silk cashmere combo. The two of them make for a deliciously soft scarf. It will make a lovely Xmas present when the time rolls around. (But not for you -- the recipient doesn't read the blog. Sorry.)

Limbo

I am in a strange state, right now, where I feel like I'm making no progress with all the various things I've been working on. I've been reading the same books for ages, and working on the same projects. In fact, it might be the sheer number of them that is keeping me from getting anywhere with any in particular.


Take my knitting, for example. I am still working on the leg of the second Knetted sock, as you can see on bottom left. I have doubled the amount of completed ribbing for the Honeybee Cardigan but still haven't quite felt motivated to start the more-complicated lace pattern. The best progress I've made is on the little stripey mohair scarf -- that piece you see is the second half of the scarf, for the record. The two halves get grafted together in the middle when the knitting is done, to allow the lace at either end to be identical.

Then there's the sleeves for the black yoke pullover. They are truly the black hole of my knitting. Not only have I been working on them forever, but now, as I finally near the underarm seam (the point where I can put them aside on stitch holders until I knit the body of the sweater and then join everything together) they are somehow making no progress at all. I tried them on a few nights ago, and decided they were about 10 rows from the underarm. No matter how many times I knit 5 rows and try it on again, they are always 10 rows from the underarm. They are defying the laws of physics. Maybe just 5 more rows will do it...