"Butterbeer" colored socks

I decided to re-photograph the Goldengroves socks; the first photos came out way too dark. (These are at least a little better).

The color of the yarn is called Butterbeer (an allusion to Harry Potter, of course) by Black Trillium Studios. (But the handwritten name on the tag could just as well be "butterbur" - a type of plant).



The Goldengroves socks take deceptively long to knit. The pattern seems very simple, but it's done over a base of ribbing....and ribbing, that switching from knit to purl every stitch, slows you down.

Also, they're over more stitches than I would typically use (and it doesn't seem that it would be too easy to downsize neatly), so the pattern is stretched out less and shows less:



That aside, I do find the color of the yarn pleasing; it will go with a lot of things I wear once it's cool enough again to wear wool socks.



Also, I realized I never posted a photo of this! I've had it for years - I think I made it back before I had a camera - and I was looking at it the other day and thought of how much it pleased me, and that I should post a photo.



It's a stuffed toy yak. I had bought a book that was something like "Stuffed animals A to Z" (no, I don't remember what they used for Q) and Yak was the Y animal and also was one of the cuter and more unusual ones in the book. The "pelt" is a scrap of fabric from Fabulous-Furs (a faux fur coat company. They used to sell yardage and kits and they also had wonderful scrap boxes if you liked to make furry toys or things like cat beds - I have no idea if they still offer those or not). The face and legs are "doesuede" leftover from a skirt I made myself - it's like Ultrasuede but cheaper and the backing is different. The horns actually ARE a small piece of Ultrasuede; one of the fabric stores up where my parents live sells small pieces for embellishment.



Here's the face.

When I was a kid, I always liked the toys of "unusual" animals (one of my favorite of my small plastic zoo animals was a pangolin) and the yak pleases me for a similar reason. (Also: yaks CAN be fiber animals, just like sheep or musk ox). It's also less "cartoonish" (despite the smiling face) than some stuffed animals I have made over the years.