How About It . . .
Here is another pair of socks that I finished last week and just got to photo now. :-) They are gift socks, made from the basic sock pattern that I like to use. The yarn is my "old faithful," Opal. I love that stuff :-D this is Opal - Hundertwasser, in the Autobus Fenster colorway (that means bus window ;-D). I cast these on at Stitches and really fell in love with how the colorway was knitting up - which was pretty different than in the skein.They are, as KniftyRed likes to say, matchy-matchy - until you get to the TOE. Go figure. I have no idea how that happened :-D
And for good measure this morning, here's that
Wollmeise 100% superwash in the Granatapfel colorway. I'm sure you can tell why I'd been wanted to get some of it. :-) I have enough for something other than socks now because I have the two skeins - I have no idea what I'll make, but the yardage is 575/skein and it's sock yarn/fingering weight.Any ideas?
I'm still on the stash busting wagon but I have been sorely tempted. Carol, at My Sister's Knits, which is the LYS that I really like, lost her beloved dog, Cody, awhile ago. If you've ever been in the store, you know that both Cody and Goldie were always there to greet you. Cody always wanted me to toss the tennis ball for him, which, of course, I loved :-) Anyway, Beth at Lorna's Laces made Carol a special colorway called Cody's Love, and I would really like to get some of it for sentimental reasons. I'm holding out, however, and hoping that there will still be some in January.
I cast on some socks with the Lonesome Stone sock yarn that I got on my trip to Colorado in May. It's quite thick for sock yarn, and so I've been experimenting with it - fewer stitches, and I don't know what possessed me, but I'm knitting the Waterloose Socks (Rav link) with it - that feather and fan is not showing up well, and yet, I decided it was what I wanted . . .
I also cast on the Scottish Garden yarn from JWrayco. Plain stock
inette socks to let the yarn take center stage. This was not a colorway that I would normally go for, but as I've mentioned before, however Leslie and Janet do it, they completely side step the danger of "clown barf." It's really beautiful and I'm enjoying working with it. It does, however have a tendency to be splitty, and because I swatched first and then reused the yarn, it was definitely splitty in the beginning. I'm calling the socks made with this my Water Lily socks - it's knitting up like a Monet painting . . .I needed to swatch for it because it's a bit thinner than Opal, but ended up going with 1 1/2's anyway. I would have gone down to 1's, but the circs I have in that size are some other European brand and they were horrid to work with. 0's were just too teeny for the yarn (at least I thought so).
Well, it's another cold, rainy day in Chicagoland, and I have broken out the winter coat for real. Most evenings in my sunroom now require my very first Clapotis - which I don't think is in my Ravelry projects . . . Remind me to tell you the story of Linda the Chicken Lady and my first, fuzzy Clapotis ;-)
Comments
The Opal socks are great too! Funny about the toe...
As for sock knitting needles, I like both the Knit Picks (metal) and KA (bamboo) needles in size 1 (2.25 mm). The Knit Picks ones are really pointy and slick, whereas the bamboo ones are not as pointy; they are polished and smooth, but I wouldn't call them slick. Knit Picks makes wooden needles in the 2.25 mm, too, so you could give any of those a try.
Order some so you have them on hand when you need 'em! None of these needles are very expensive, and since you can't buy yarn this year you have more $$ for knitting tools and such, right? ;-)
I managed to get two skeins of Granatapfel 80/20 which should arrive before too long. Isn't it a beautiful colorway? I'll be interested to see what you choose to make out of yours. A shawl is a good idea, but which one? That's always the problem.....