Falling Water Socks

Apparently I'm in love with Stansfield 196.

On my recent vacation, I knit a sock using the chart for that pattern from "More Sensational Knitted Socks". It's a very pretty pattern, easily done and easily memorized. There is no cabling, just simple increases and decreases.



And here it is, in Trekking XXL, color "77". Love the color name, don't you?

It's for someone with feet a bit smaller than mine, hence the petite leg on this sock.

I kept thinking it looked familiar. I had long wanted to knit the River Rapids Socks, a free pattern by Sockbug, but hadn't gotten around to it. (BTW, that's a link to the main site and not the pattern itself since I don't like to link to PDF's, it causes havoc with my browser when I click on a link to a PDF, and yet, do I ever learn?).

Guess what? Sockbug's pattern uses the exact same chart.

Anyway, I took a scarf project along for travel knitting, also. It's the Falling Water scarf, free on this blog. My friend Lisa saw me musing about it on my blog, knit it, entered it in the Minnesota State Fair, and won a ribbon and a small (very small) cash prize to boot. I would demand a finder's fee for having the idea, if not for the fact that Lisa just put up with me put me up, along with DD, for a week. And the fact that the cash prize is (ahem) $2, or so she tells me.



Here's the wonky, unblocked beginning of my version.

Isn't that a lovely stitch pattern? I started mine on the plane home using the lovely purple wool / tencel sock yarn I got at Stitches West, and it's partly done (haven't decided exactly how long to make it yet), and -- wait just a gol-dern minute!

You guessed it! Stansfield 196 strikes yet again. Imagine my surprise on the plane home to unfold the scarf pattern I had printed out so long ago and look at the chart, only to immediately put it away again, having memorized that chart a short way down the leg of the sock.

Now, a question for you all -- is Trekking thinner than other sock yarn? I don't notice that the yardage is significantly more than other sock yarns, at least per the label, but on the first plane ride, after grafting the second toe on the Sunday Socks, I accidentally cast on one entire extra pattern repeat on the cuff of this sock.

And didn't notice it until I had knit the entire leg and heel flap and was ready to pick up the gusset stitches. Because apparently I am even more of a moron than I had previously thought possible. But somehow the sock is the right size, and I measured my gauge at about 10 freakin' spi, which is the only way I could be such a maroon and still have the sock come out the right size.

The knitting goddess was smiling on me when I knit this sock, that's for sure. I just hope she smiles on me again when I go to knit sock #2, because I have taken what notes I can and set it aside for now, being completely captivated by Cat Bordhi's new book.

I'm off to the ball game tonight with Coriolis sock in hand, hopefully I will put up a pic over the weekend.

Vacation!

No, I'm not gone yet. I will be leaving tomorrow for a visit with some high school friends, still dear friends despite living several thousand miles away.

One of them is the mom of this lovely girl.



They will be putting me and DD up for a couple of days, and we will all be going to the waterpark for a few days.

And I hope it was cooler when she took that picture. Those are all the items she submitted to the State Fair this year. Hopefully she'll win some blue ribbons!

Back in a week --

Falling Water Scarf

A while back, I posted that I was thinking of making the Falling Water Scarf with some lovely purple sock yarn I got at Stitches West.

My friend Lisa (who never comments here -- ahem) did that very thing! And here is her lovely daughter modeling said scarf:



Lisa sez:

"When I read your blog a month or so ago, you had just brought some very cool yarn and you were contemplating what to do with it. You pointed to a few patterns for a scarf that you were considering. I loved one of the patterns, so used it on some yarn of mine. Once I made the scarf, I realized it probably would look better as a solid color, rather than this Koigu thing I did, but trust me, it looks absolutely gorgeous with my light blue winter jacket. I finished up the scarf in Hawaii and thought I would just block it, then put it away til next fall. Little did I know we would get an inch of snow a few days ago, and it came in handy while I was walking the dogs (in my winter parka) at 6:00 am."

Lisa lives in Minnesota. 'Nuff said.

I guess I'd better get busy turning my own yarn into this scarf, now.

Oh, the possibilties

Thoughts on the red DK merino --

Might it want to be this? or possibly this?? ETA: I have about 1540 yds, enough for either of those sweaters but not enough for just any sweater.

Thoughts on the lovely variegated purple-y, lavender-y, wool and tencel sock yarn --

I don't think it wants to be socks. I think it wants to be this, or more likely, this.

Or something else yet to be found among the treasures here. It is 475 yds of sheen.

The purple/lavender yarn sits on my desk, because I just love to look at it.

Any suggestions? After my treatment I do have some hope of knitting again, soon. But not today.