brainylady

1. Do you believe in magic?

Remember I said I had run out of yarn for my Leaf Lace Shawl? OK, it would have been more accurate to say that I feared I would run out. There seemed to be so little left, and still so much knitting to do -- only 8 rows, sure, but 8 rows of 350-odd stitches. Because of this fear, I'd put down the shawl a couple of weeks ago. Last night I picked it up again, and the shawl goddesses must've been smiling down on me, because a few hours later I was binding off. Honestly, I don't know how I had enough. It was like the alpaca was regenerating itself. Anyway, this is very exciting, and I could block the shawl today ... except that I have no idea where my little tin of pins is. Arrgh! I know I packed pins, but I can't recall unpacking pins. So I need to find my pins or buy more. (Luckily I realized I was pinless before I started soaking the shawl!)

2. Fishing trip sock knitting

Finally, photos of the socks I knit at the Crotch last month:



I loved that the colours in the yarn matched so closely the colours of the shoreline trees, rocks, and soil. I don't have the yarn info at hand right now -- I'll try to find it, and then I'll add it to my knitting gallery. I got the yarn from Leigh -- as a pair of socks, in a 2004 sock exchange. She knit a truly beautiful pair of socks for me, and I tried to wear them, I really did -- but they were too small. And so I wasn't wearing them, and they sat sadly in the sock drawer. So I decided to reuse the yarn, and I really hope that's not disrespectful to Leigh, but I figured it was worse for a very pretty pair of socks to languish in the drawer than to rip them and knit new socks. You can see them better in this photo, even though I didn't manage to photograph both whole feet:



I made up the pattern as I went along. I knew the socks would be on the short side, so I knit them toe-up, starting with a short-row toe. Short-row heels, too. One more shot of the yummy front cables:



You may notice that the cables twist to the left in one sock and to the right in the other. I like having the cables only on the front, leaving the back in plain stockinette; the big cuff is *k3, p2* ribbing. This yarn is thick, closer to sport than sock weight, but all I had with me was my standard 2.25mm circular needle, so the fabric is dense. These will be warm in the winter, if a little short. So there you go -- I really was knitting in the boat.