Roy G Biv

Over the weekend a friend mentioned to me that she thought my blog was in competition with another to see who could go the longest without posting. Heh. Without going into too much detail, the post below was started sometime in December of 2008~ I guess I've been spending waay too much time at work, or something. :) When I'm home and not working on a project I tend to spend too much time on Ravelry, too
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Do you view your yarn-in-waiting as stash or a collection?

I've always had a project or idea in mind when buying yarn. It was always stash- Sock yarn took me in to the "Duh, it'll be socks" mode.

Well, ahh... here's a few socks' worth:

This is Wollmeise sock yarn, and it has clearly brought me right to collection mode like no yarn before! It's an addicting yarn, indeed. The colors are great, and my often-worn Wollmeise socks show NO WEAR. That's right, no wear at all!

For the most part I have greatly reined in purchases of other yarn in the past six months. (Although I could certainly use a full year break!) This was a greatly needed activity because of the Wollmeise purchases *and* new yarn coming off the spinning wheel.

Can you see the tree reflected on the screen? I wasn't kidding about December~ :)

Is it Time?

Last summer I bought a few skeins of Casbah sock yarn at The Yarnery. (Ok, more than a few. There were six skeins in total.) It feels great, makes a great fabric, and washes well. Did I mention that it's cashmere? Ok, just 10%, but it feels like a much higher amount! I've just finished my 2nd and 3rd pairs of socks with the stuff.

The middle skein (pumpkin) was used to knit Slalom, a lovely sock pattern by Elizabeth Warner. (Ravelry link for pattern download) The heel was inspired by Cat Bordhi's 'sockitecture' concept. The purls between traveling stitches increase around the ankle, and the semi-traditional heel turn is a touch higher than a regular sock. You can see the heel flap above-- it's on the bottom of the foot. I modified the pattern by knitting with 1.5 US needles instead of 1s (tight gauge), and I added an extra pattern repeat.

The fit is great, and I love the way they feel!

Over Thanksgiving I spent a few days at the family cabin just like last year. During the first few days I read the second book in the Twilight series (yes, it's teenage literature!), and knit socks.

My aunt Sandy looooves pink, so I chose the skein on the right (above). Since our family is from Germany (Alsace Lorraine region--- the other side is from Bavaria), I thought Suzanna by Stephanie van der Linden on the Germain Creative Sock List (Yahoo group) might be a good choice.

Aunt Sandy seemed to agree. Here she is is in all her morning splendor. (I don't think she would appreciate this pre- hair & makeup pic on the internet, but I think it's great. :)

The socks were knit to pattern except for the instep. I added an extra ten stitches (half a repeat) to create two full motifs instead of 1.5. She really likes them, and I know I'll see them over and over again during future trips to the cabin.

I really love when handknits are appreciated!

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For the past year I've knit with cashmere (blends) a good deal more than kitchen cotton. Is it time to finally change the name of the blog?