I finished the Pele's Socks!



The striping on the feet came out a bit different on the second sock, but not differently enough to make me want to rip back and try to re-jigger it so it would come out the same as the first.

Orange is SO not my color but I really like these. I could see wearing them with black slacks and a plain crisp white blouse - just a little shot of color. Or jeans and a gray t-shirt. Or a yellow t-shirt, I have several of those.

The pattern is "Rib Fantastic," from the new-ish "Knitting Socks from Handpainted Yarns" (which is a neat book, if you haven't seen it yet). I think I will at some point make a second pair - in different colors, of course - using this pattern. (I think it would also look nice made of a "nearly solid" or solid colored yarn).

It is, once again, raining this morning. Raining very heavily, in fact. I hope we don't lose power - and I hope my students can get in safely for their 8 am final. (From this class, I'd rather more anticipate someone risking their neck to come in than calling me and going, "It's raining! I can't get there!")

I'm fearing a repeat of summer 2007, when everything flooded (and all the field sites were under water most of the summer).

On a happier note, I've already planned the next pair of more-complex-knitting socks (I like to have at least one "simple" pair and one "more complex" pair going at a time). I had been wanting to do the sock pattern called The Weasley Homestead for a while, but hadn't found the just-right yarn yet. Well, I had a skein of BeBop in a color called "Chalkboard" (it's the perfect green of grade-school chalkboards, highlighted with grey and yellow - you can see a photo here). Somehow, that seemed right to me. I think it's because my brain makes funny jumps from thought to thought: winding off the yarn, I thought "Green and yellow: it looks like Hobbit yarn." And then that made me think of the Weasleys for some reason - I think it's the red hair, and also the way their house was portrayed in the movies - it makes me think a bit of a hobbit's home. (COULD the Weasleys be part hobbit? I know Mr. Weasley is probably too tall...but as Tolkien said, the hobbits probably disguised themselves by intermarrying and the short genes (and I suppose, the hairy-feet genes) dying out over time...)

So anyway. The progression went: "Chalkboard" colored sock yarn ---> "It's Hobbit Yarn!" ---> "The Weasley Homestead pattern would work for this!"

So I printed off the pattern and have it and the cake of yarn sitting next to my big chair, so I can cast on when I get home tonight. (I am going to use dpns rather than the recommended circulars. I know lots of people do socks on two circulars - and lots of people use the so-called "Magic Loop" technique with one long circular, and that's fine for them, but for me - I like my little old double pointed needles. They work well for me, I know right where they all are (I have a special case where I keep them; the circulars seem to migrate all over the house even though I have a needle-keeper for them). Also, I don't really have many small-diameter circulars; I mostly bought needles in the 4-5-6-7-8 size ranges for doing sweaters.)