I Love Socks!

Besides loving WEARING socks, I am falling in love with knitting socks.  They are a compact project that can be tucked into your purse and pulled out to tackle a round or two on a whim.  They can be knit from the cuff down, from the toe up and apparently from the heel out and up (thanks for that info Itchy).  They can be knit on a set of 4 or 5 double-pointed needles, a single circular needle, two circular needles.  They can be knit one at a time or two at a time.  They can be made from honking bulky wool and from the finest of lace weight yarn.  They can be knit in different heights, from your ankle (or cankles for some of us), to your thigh.  They can be knit with anything from a solitary solid colour to a hand-painted yarn, a multitude of colours, striped or in a pattern using a variety of colours.  They can be knit with cables patterns, lace patterns, beads....the possibilities are truly endless!

I am not the best at knitting them....YET...but I'm working at it and what better way to improve my skills than to enter into another KAL project with my friend, Jolene.  We are tackling Salor designed by Hunter Hammersen  from her recently published book Silk Road Socks.  The fun thing about us doing a KAL is that in the two that we have undertaken, we have chosen two different wools in two completely different colour palettes.  I think I am seeing a pattern here....Jolene's choices seem to be optimistic as though she might be willing Spring and Summer to arrive upon us with pastels and bold vibrant colours.  While mine, appear to be more of a realist "living in the moment" option steeped in Fall and Winter earthy colours - dark green, chocolate brown mixed with rust, burgundy and camel.  It's a great opportunity to see what a pattern looks like in a variety of products and hopefully provide some inspiration to knitters to join in on knitting one of these glorious patterns.  Perhaps you might even consider joining in on our KAL.

My choice is Cascade Yarns Heritage Paints.

I laugh now at my seasonal analogy in describing our choices because the colour name for my choice....Indian Summer.

Jolene's choice is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal Sock Yarn in the magnificent Golden Glow Tonal.  This photo doesn't do it justice.  Check her blog out here for a picture of her actual skein.

We had our cast-on party yesterday complete with homemade cinnamon buns sopping in butter and coated with cream cheese frosting dribbling throughout.  Several hours of chatter later, interruptions by two disrespectful, perhaps bored 6 pound wonders and Jolene was well on her way.  I, on the other hand, had several "false starts" but I did manage to get in a couple of rounds before it was time for her to leave.  Can't wait to make some progress so I can share it with you.
 
I am also just washing up a little hat that I have crocheted for one of the SF's co-worker's kids.  She had this beautiful cotton crocheted hat that was starting to wear and asked if I would be able to replicate it.  His co-worker and I happen to play hockey in the same league, so we met up on the bleachers between her game and mine - me in my hockey gear, hers near-by so she could dart off to change -  so that I could take some mental notes and a couple of measurements.  Her daughter is so attached to her hat that there was no way she would lend it to me so I had to go from memory when hunting for a similar pattern.  I ended up combining several and added my own edging which I am hoping is the same as what she had because it was one of her favourite features of the hat.  A simple reverse single crochet stitch.  I'm very self-taught when it comes to crochet but I think it turned out great.  Here's hoping she will like it.  I kind of cheated on my 11,111 because I included this in the count even though it is crochet, not knitting...same diff, really?!
 
 

 
Well...that's about it for today.  SOCK ON!