"Waving Lace Socks" FO

Pattern: "Waving Lace Socks" by Evelyn A. Clark

Source: "Interweave Favorite Socks"

Yarn: Viola Sock

Colour: Blossom

Needles: 2.25mm dpn's

Start: July 23 Finish: August 9, 2011

Modifications: Used Optional Scalloped Edge (from pattern) at Cuff

'Just over two weeks either side of the August Long weekend to knit these but I coveted them for years and years before that.  I loved the pattern from the first time I flipped through this book. I kept an eye out for a sufficiently soft pink yarn to do the pattern justice almost immediately after that and while I found many options in my travels, one that seemed sufficiently soft and understated to be wearable proved difficult to find.

Then at the 2010 DKC Frolic I discovered Viola yarns. The muted but complex palette in the Viola collection included this wonderful skein of creamy pink...

It took another year to get around to putting the pattern and yarn together but I think the match is perfect.

I used the optional scalloped edge at the cuff - 'love it! 'Adds a little girlie detail that goes well with the pink while staying quite elastic around the calf.

The chart for the socks is easily memorized and the knitting goes fairly quickly. Of course this is especially so once the heel was turned and half the stitches were straight stockinette.

I have to say I'm a bit smitten with the soles of these socks. I found myself admiring them for their nice tidy uniformity. Its not something I've ever really worked at with my knitting (probably the only thing 'truth be told!) but there it is, after hundreds of thousands of repetitions it looks like I've got the hang of stocking stitch!

The "Waves" have a nice, well, "wavy" appearance about them and work rather like ribbing to maintain a  snug fit on the leg.

Sadly, on my leg the result of this wonderful yarn and pattern is something distinctly flesh-like in both colour and texture. A bit too close to my skin tone for my taste...

Nonetheless its satisfying to have this project behind me and  a pair of pale pink ( okay, "skin coloured") socks to look forward to wearing once the weather turns a bit cooler.

And to top it all off Hudson is quite fond of them too!

Hey thanks for dropping by today!

Next up: FO's that resulted from a little "doodling" around with leftover cotton yarn and a stitch dictionary.

"Nouveau Gloves" by Glenna C. FO

Pattern: "Nouveau Gloves" by Glenna C

Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Lable DK Weight

Colour" "Grape"

Needles: 2.75mm dpn's

Start: April 24 Finish: July 20, 2011

Modifications: None

These were first off my needles after moving to the cottage in July. They're also the first gloves I've attempted so they took a while as I fiddled with the length of, and minimizing gaps between, fingers. (The shading in the yarn, combined with the patterned stitching helped hide my beginner technique on this!)

Glenna recommends working the twisted stitches without using a cable needle. As a follower of  her blog,  I know this is one of her frequent topics and she does a great job of describing how best to do it. While I can, I generally don't use this technique for cables but it really is a time saver when working the multiple twisted stitches called for in the pattern.

I used the recommended brand of Tanis Fiber Arts yarn but the variation in this colourway is all wrong for the pattern. The kind of bossy horizontal striping is quite at odds with the strong vertical lines of the twisted pattern which is just the thing I loved about the design in the first place.

Nonetheless I will get a lot of wear out of long purple gloves (These will step in for a leather pair I bought for dressy events that I seem to keep grabbing every time I walk out the door).

Number One Son says they look "reptilian" - from his perspective, a positive attribute in a pair of gloves, although not exactly the look I was going for!

But they feel great on my hands and without being too heavy I think they'll be a great accessory for autumn and spring seasons.

With these gloves starting my cottage FO pile the third week in July I was free to dive into my stashed Viola sock yarn next...FO post on that tomorrow!

Thanks for dropping by today!

I'm Still Here!

A week and a half ago I sat down at the computer to draft an end of summer/start to September post. I had a  little stack of knits all done at the cottage over the summer, awaiting their debut about which I planned to write, a big cream coloured poodle curled up at my feet. Everything was good.

Then the phone rang. It was my mother's doctor. She was in the office with him, he wanted me to pick her up and take her straight to the hospital to be admitted for tests. She would have none of it.  By the time I got there, 15 or 20 minutes later, she had left under her own steam and gone into the mall to buy some lunch. I only found her back at her condo, watching TV, munching her egg salad sandwich and no less adamant she was NOT going to spend the weekend at the hospital.

Sigh.

Fast forward to last Monday, I took her in first thing and she has been there ever since. She is doing very well, receiving excellent care and will hopefully be home sometime in the next few days.

Meanwhile when I haven't been at the hospital with her I've been working on her place to get it cleaned, her fall clothes out and ready and things generally thinned out to make it easier for her to navigate around the place on her own.

The hospital is of course a pretty good place to get knitting done and I did complete a set of Fallberry Mitts by Anne Hansen over the last few days.  I'll have to add them to the pile though - I want to post the FO's in order of completion!

So that's what's up with me. I'm still here, still knitting and eager to get back to blogging about it! I hope everyone had as great a summer as I did!

Thanks for dropping by!