Another over-break project.

Again, these were "simple" socks, in the sense of not having patterning over and above ribbing.



These socks have been to heck and back already - they were the ones I wore on my ill-fated train trip last week (golly, it WAS last week now when I was miserably trying to cope with the trip). They have, I hasten to add, been washed since, and don't seem any worse for the wear.

I knit them using Online "Cottage Color," which is more of a sportweight yarn - it is definitely heavier than the typical sock yarn. I used size "1 1/2" needles (some Pony Pearls I had which were between standard US 1s and 2s in size). The pattern is Nancy Bush's "Lichen Ribbed Sock" from her vintage sock book (the one that is a series of revampings of old Weldon's patterns.)

I really like this pattern; it's a little different. Both the heel turn and the toe are atypical compared to the socks I usually do. (Bush describes the heel turn as a Welsh heel. There is also a French heel - which is a bit rounder (round-heels. Giggle. Or does no one know what "round heels" means any more?) and the German/Dutch heel which is more square. I presume the names came because that style of turning the heel was commonly used in its particular country.)

This is the second pair of socks I made from the pattern, the first were from a Strapaz yarn:



They're simple socks, but like all the Nancy Bush patterns I've seen, there's an attention to detail - the "seamline" on the back of the heel flap originates out of one of the purl stitches on the ribbing, the 1 x 1 top ribbing melds perfectly into the 3 x 1 ribbing of the leg. Nothing is sloppy, nothing is done halfway and deemed "oh, it's good enough." And I like that. I like that about her patterns, that there's that little exactitude there.

***

I didn't really do much of anything last evening - I had an afternoon meeting, and then had to practice piano. And when I tried to do a load of laundry (a small load), I found that I'm going to need to get the plumbers out to install a "clean out" on my drain line sooner than anticipated - the drain water from the washing machine comes up some in the tub, which tells me the main drain line probably is partially blocked. (Gah, I hope it's not partially collapsed or anything like that). So today I will be calling them. It will be expensive but as we have seen in the world this week, it could be a lot worse.

***

Tangentially speaking of which, I'm going to brag on CPaAG and on myself a little. A couple people on there put together a quick mini-auction to raise money for Doctors without Borders for Haiti relief. The deal was, the successful bidder at the end of the auction made a donation directly, and then forwarded the receipt information to the donor, who would then send the item to them.

A lot of people put up stuff they had made - shawls and pens and gloves. (I actually bought a pair of gloves). I didn't have anything particularly special that was newly made and not worn, and I didn't want to promise a custom pair of socks or gloves (some people did) because I was afraid my busy life would keep me from getting them to the person in a timely fashion. Then I thought: I have lots of sock yarn. Knitters like sock yarn. I can bear to part with some of it.

I started digging in my stash, found a few nice skeins that either were colors I didn't wear much, or were colors that I already had socks in. Ultimately, I put together a "Sock the Rainbow!" with a color more or less representing each of the ROY G BIV colors. (The photo that I posted on Ravelry to advertise it is on my flickr page).

I was quite surprised at what it brought in. I won't post the amount here (to limit the seeming bragginess) but I was very pleased.

Parting with some of those will be hard (especially the "flamingo pie" Dream in Color - the orange one), but it makes it easier knowing that there's money going to help folks because of it. And anyway, I have lots of sock yarn, I won't miss these skeins.