Knit Sisters

Although I have not accomplished a thing on Rumpelstiltskin, I have been knitting, oh yes I have, and quite industriously too.

First off, I finished these socks:

 

I call these as the “California Striped Socks,” because I started them when I was in California, and it was the first sock of the pair that I was knitting on in the photos from Ellen’s CA reception in the Napa Valley. 

                                    Note how the heels and toes are reversed in color.  I did that not only to be clever and original, but also because I was worried about running out of one of the colors otherwise.

I have to say, it was amazing to me how impressed folks were with my sock-knitting.  Non-knitters seem to regard the making of one’s own socks as something almost magical.  (Either that or you get this [highly original] comment, “You know, you can buy socks three for $5 at Wal-Mart!  Yuk, yuk, yuk!”)

Second, I completed these socks just the other day:

 

These are made from a gorgeous hand-dyed superwash sportweight wool from Textiles a Mano, a company run by Laura Macagno-Shang, a lovely woman who lives just down the road from me in St. Joseph, MO.  She dyes all her own yarns and has recently opened a small yarn shop in St. Joe, which features (naturally) her own yarns and a few other select brands.  She also regularly visits festivals and shows with her yarns, so be sure to check out her stuff if you ever have the chance.  Certainly, if you live in my neck of the woods, the shop is worth a visit.  She has a great color sense and is always dreaming up new colorways.  In fact, she told me that she rarely repeats a colorway, so if you see something you like, you’d better buy all of it!

 

I knit these from a pattern in More Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch.  I liked the groovy little wavy lines in the pattern and thought it might look nice with the hand-dyed yarn.  And I think it does, too.

And third, I’ve started on these:

Socks which I refer to as my “GI Socks.”  These are going to be sent to a National Guardsman in Afghanistan.  On the plane back from Boston, I sat next to a very nice young man who was on his way to Fort Riley, KS to be shipped out.  I was finishing up the striped socks and working on the Textiles a Mano socks, and he was very interested in my sock-making.  I told him that if he would give me his address, I would make him a pair of socks and send them to him, since after all it gets very cold there in the winter.  So, these are destined to be worn in Afghanistan by a man I barely know; political views notwithstanding, everyone deserves a pair of handknit wool socks in a cold climate.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Sock it to me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.