FO: Clover Socks

I finished a pair of socks. Well, not just a pair of socks, but the most favorite socks I have ever ever knitted for myself.

Pattern: Clover from the Inside Loop, by Kate Blackburn
Yarn: Regia Silk (I've expressed my love for it recently)
Needles: 2.5mm addi turbos

I knit these socks two at a time, top down. Except for the heel. I wasn't clever enough to do both heels at the same time, so I separated them and knit them separately. I might just be a convert to two at a time socks. It's fantastic to finish both socks at the same time. Love it. Not in love with top down, though. I continue to prefer toe up socks for the ease of it all. The only small mod to the pattern was a shallower heel - I did 11 repeats of the heel flap instead of 15.

I also really like this pattern, but I'm a sucker for simple cable and lace column socks. I adored Hedera (which, incidentally, were also knit in Regia Silk, but for my mom) and Pembrokeshire Pathways. Pembrokeshire Pathways gets a lot of wear from me. That Koigu is holding up pretty well.

Enough jabbering on, let's have photos!


And a full foot photo, with flash:


I should be doing my Latin homework right now, instead of posting this. Yep! Learning Latin with my pal Larissa. Who already learned it once and is way ahead of me. I need to go puzzle over the first declension now.

Better late than never?

I like to participate in swaps. I participated in a pre-Christmas swap and never posted the goodies! I took photos, but never posted. Bad form! In any case, better late than never, right?

I was spoiled by the ever delightful KashmirKnitter who sent me this bag full of goodies:


That's a lovely project bag, a couple of sock patterns, some lip gloss (which I promise not to use near my eyes), Hello Kitty pens, and a ball of On Your Toes bamboo sock yarn. I've never tried bamboo yarn before. It will be an adventure. And wound up in that ball of sock yarn? Lots of little surprises! A pair of earring, an anklet, point protectors, buttons, and cute little sayings. Thank you, KashmirKnitter.

The soothing power of lace

*
Sometimes, when I get really stressed, I just like to look at photos of knitting. And when I want to double that soothing power, I look at photos of lace. I can browse recent projects in Ravelry's Lace Knitter's group or I can search for lace on flickr. There's just something I love about the floaty, almost ethereal quality of lace. It calms me down and inspires me. Sure, it's time that I'm not knitting lace, but it's an okay trade-off. Maybe it's because you can't knit lace angry? Or being very distracted at all? Maybe it's just because it's pretty. Anyway, it works for me.

*Above photo is of my Seraphim Shawl knit in 2006 and gifted to my aunt for Christmas (rav & lj links respectively).

Knitting mountain

I am a pilemaker. My natural instinct is to assemble things into piles. This, for example, is the end table on which my knitting sits.


You can see that knitting mountain extends onto the shelving unit which houses my yarn, knitting books, and other supplies. Three wips in progress are visible amidst the chaos. I just cast on for a sweater sleeve, and I am about to turn the heels on my sockdown! socks. My lace project is up on the shelving unit. In the chaos you can also see my altoids, the laser pointer which drives the cat batty, my dpn roll, and some circular needles. Also visible is my frog knotions container given to me by my brother in law and his wife for Christmas. It is very delightful.

I think knitting mountain is about due for a leveling. I feel certain that my husband, who is not a born pile maker, will agree with this assessment of the situation.

Socks!

It's snowing outside, coming down relatively heavy for this area of the country. Also, it's 11:15 pm and I should be in bed since I have to go to work in the morning. But I don't feel tired at the moment and my secret resolution was to knit blog more. So. Socks!

I've cast on a pair of Clover socks in Regia Silk. I love these socks. I love them. I love the pattern and I freaking love this yarn. This will be my third pair of socks in Regia Silk, but the first pair for me. If I could only knit with only one yarn for the rest of forever, I think I would choose Regia Silk. That's how much I love it.


I'm trying a new technique here, too! Two socks, top down, at the same time, magic loop. I've never knit socks two at a time before. And I very rarely knit socks from the top down. The cast on was fiddly and annoying, but I switched up to a 40" needle, and that eased my troubles considerably. I am now quite fond of this two at once business - I very much like the idea of not having to cast on a second time to finish the pair. I had a lot of trepidation about the cast on. It seems that there are many more instructional resources for knitting toe up than top down two at a time. But I found these instructions for a pair of top down socks and followed that. It was fiddly, but I survived. Maybe I'll try it from the toe up next time.