No fish, but new socks

I'm back! It was lovely to spend a week closer to nature, but Crotch Lake didn't give up its fish easily. I caught three (or was it only two?) tiny pickerel, which went back into the lake; Bill caught three (or was it four?) that were keepers, plus several little ones that went back in. It got very rainy toward the end of the week, so on Thursday we took a spontaneous drive to Ottawa and spent the wet afternoon in the Canadian Museum of Civilization (in Hull, actually). That was pretty cool. How could I possibly have found Canadian First Nations history boring in high school? How could it have been made to seem boring? Ridiculous and tragic.


The most exciting thing about my week was that I read two novels, which is probably more than I've read for pure pleasure in the last two years. I read Lullabies for Little Criminals and A Complicated Kindness, and as the last Canadian to read these particular books, I feel quite confident recommending them. (I didn't realize they dealt with such similar stories, though; I would have liked more contrast in my novel-reading binge.)

I did a bit of knitting, too. I did take my half-done blue herrings, but I didn't work on those. I made simple stockinette socks from a stashed skein of Colinette Jitterbug instead:



I was very nervous about running out of yarn, since the 100g skein yields only 267 metres of yarn. (I know, right?) I decided to follow the "Simple Sock Pattern" on the ball band, since I trusted they wouldn't provide a pattern that used more than a skein. I was also nervous about the chance of ugliness; in the back of my mind was Jennie's encounter with this very colourway of Jitterbug -- she was unhappy with the yarn in sock form, though she did knit a fabulous beret with it. So I cast on and knit the ribbing and a bit more, and one of my fears was confirmed: ugly! Check this out:


What's going on in that ribbing? Unacceptable! So I opted to replace the cuff ribbing with a picot edge, which turned out much better. Overall, though, for me this is one of those colourways that looks better in skein form than knitted up. I also substituted a short-row heel for the pattern's flap and gusset. Other than that, I followed their numbers -- and ended up with short socks and quite a bit of leftover yarn. Sigh! It's OK, though. I like these ones short.


I have to go and enjoy the rest of my weekend now. I hope you're doing the same.