The purple socks (they will be called Caprice, which I’ll explain in due course) are done and drying on the blockers. I’m quite smitten by them. So smitten, in fact, that I may go ahead and release them earlier than I had originally planned. I’m starting to think early January might be a more fitting date than mid February. What do you think?
There is one sad thing about them being done though. Their completion means that I am not currently using my new Signature needles. They went into the socks the day I opened them and haven’t been far from my hands since. I’ve got another pair of socks on the same size needles and I’m considering switching out for the Signatures. I’ve heard it’s courting disaster to switch needles in the middle of a project, but I think I’ll take my chances.
As I mentioned earlier, the Signatures were a birthday present. I actually had a very knitterly birthday. I got the Barbara Walker stitch dictionary I was missing. I’ve now got the whole set, and they hold pride of place on my knitting shelf. I also got Lily Chin’s Tips and Tricks book, which is just marvelous. I took her class earlier this year and was very pleased with it. The book is even more information packed than the class was. The final bit of stitchy goodness was finding another stitch dictionary (Harmony Guides Lace & Eyelets) at the used book store on my birthday. Obviously the knitting Fates were watching out for me.
Pictures of Caprice will be up shortly (lovely though they are they don’t look all that impressive on the blockers).
;)
So way back when, I mentioned that I had cast on two socks and a pair of mitts in a fit of unexpected productivity (or is that promiscuity). One of the socks you’ve seen, and the other has been ruthlessly ripped and is waiting for me to rework it into something that will fit a human foot. The mitts, however, have been hiding in the shadows. No more. Here they are in all their winter-y glory.
Now you may recall that I said that I started this project in large part because the yarn (the sadly defunct Sheep Number Three by the company Sheep Shop Yarn) perfectly matches my spring coat. Until this week, I’d been wearing my spring coat, despite the calendar. It just wasn’t that cold. We had gotten only an inch of snow all season. Alas, the weather gods heard me and decided to taunt me. The snowy background seen in this picture is a good seven inches deep, and it’s still coming down fast.
I still plan to finish the second mitt and wear them cheerfully. I just won’t match quite as well I had planned. Knitters are exempt from the requirement to have matching coats/hats/scarves/gloves though, right? Surely there’s a special exception for hand knit things.
All of my suspicions about Happy Feet DK have been proven correct! I am in love. It is just the right thickness for my preferred needle/tension/foot combination. It’s just thick enough to feel fast. Now knitting is not and will never be the quickest way to get socks. Speed is not the point. But I’m willing to bet that most of us wouldn’t mind too terribly much if the process took just a tiny bit less time. This yarn takes care of it. I need about 10% fewer stitches around the circumference of the sock, which makes quite a lot of difference over the course of the whole sock. I’ve got a second color of the yarn hanging out in the stash, and I have a feeling it will be making an appearance on the needles soon. The yardage on this yarn is such that I might even have enough leftovers from these two pairs to make a third pair.
As for the knitting, I’ve been zipping along on the as-of-yet-unnamed purple socks from a few posts ago. I finished the first one in 4 days (nearly unheard of) and have about 2 days of knitting left to do on the second one. These are now firmly and forever cast as the 2009 holiday socks, as I started them on The Boy’s birthday, cast on the second on my birthday, and worked on them all through the Christmas holiday. With any luck they’ll be done before the new year and might even be photographed on our upcoming New Year’s Eve excursion. Testers have the pattern, and it should be out in January or February.
- December 23, 2009
- tags:
Short notice I know, but the most recent socks are up for testing over on ravelry. Hop on over for details. I’m picking testers by December 25, so if you want to try you should go there sooner rather than later.
;)
Do you see that fluffy white stuff over there? That’s snow. Those pink things dangling out in the cold with no protective covering? Those are my toes. Yup, I went outside barefoot in the snow to get a sock picture for you. Well, half barefoot, there seemed no reason for the other foot to suffer too. And just for the record, the white speckles on the leg of the sock up by the cuff are snowflakes, not lint. I keep a lint roller by the camera and am fairly good at de-linting before I take photos. I am, however, not cool enough to pick off individual snowflakes while hopping one-footed in the snow. The neighbors already have concerns, and I see no need to confirm their suspicions.
If you’re feeling particularly observant, you may have noticed that these socks are on my shiny new Signature double points (size 1, 8″, stiletto points in case you’re keeping track). They were a birthday present this weekend and were immediately pressed into service. As soon as I opened them, I started knitting the ribbon the package had been decorated with (you know, just to be sure they worked and all).
I used to think the Signature needles were a ridiculous extravagance. Who in their right mind would spend that much on five little sticks? Then I went to Sock Summit and got to see them in person. I wandered past the booth half a dozen times before I finally sat down and tried them. I’m fairly convinced they must dust their tester needles with a light sprinkle of crack. It’s the only way to explain the dazed looks and empty wallets of the people staggering away from the booth. I happily joined the ranks of the addicted and haven’t looked back.
