The next ones are green!
Yes indeedy, the rule of thumb which says that if the first sock has taken for-ev-er the second one will feel like it took 10 minutes, has come strongly to the fore.
On Saturday I felt that I could consider and possibly even touch the purple yarn without my tummy turning over, so I cast on to have something to knit and watch telly with and got a good way into the toe - it really does help when you only have to knit it once to get it right!
Then on Sunday - well, Federer v Nadal had me gripping the needles and either forgetting to knit, or knitting in time with the tennis - I finished the evening with a film and found that I was half way through the heel short rows.
When I got home on Monday I'd done a good chunk of the leg and I was at that precarious stage of knowing that even if I didn't knit any more on it on Monday, I would probably finish before Tuesday knit night which would mean carting round something else on Tuesday etc etc.
So I sat down to finish while H went to play hockey, and one episode of Lewis (my favourite), Part of the documentary on the July 7 bombings, several episodes of Police Bang Crash Ouch and snippets of a few other things later, they were done:
I should note the following:
1. It was 1am (I thought it was about half ten and got rather a shock)
2. The pattern notes carefully explained that the pattern was written with one less repeat than the picture to encompass the large size.
3. I knit the large size after reading everyone else's feedback on sizing.
4. I got to the leg, looked at the picture and thought "I'm going to do another pattern repeat - there's seems to be lots of yarn".
5. As a safety measure I weighed the sock on the needles vs the remaining sock yarn and a spare set of needles at regular intervals as I went up the leg of the first sock, to make sure I didn't shoot myself in the foot as it were (yes you can thwack me for that one)
6. In line with above safety measures I cast off the first sock when the front slash met up at the back and left off an extra inch or so of ribbing.
7. (hands up if you saw this one coming) - Despite all efforts (as outlined above) my second sock is about 4 rounds shorter than the other one - efforts including splicing in my emergency sock yarn keyring.
8. I love them anyway and you really can't tell unless I tell everyone (might be a slight flaw in this blog thing then!)
It must have been kismet to finish on Monday, because at Knit Night my lovely friend Noelle gave me a lavender sachet that she had made for my birthday:
In green! It's a very cunning design because if you loop it over a coathanger it fits inside the frame and everything will smell lovely. It is a real treat as I love scented flowers but the lavender in our garden isn't big enough for a serious harvest just yet.
In the midst of sock finishing we are in sock starting:
Now I'm going to have to concentrate to say this: Fiori di Zucca - it means Courgette Flower (I think) and is kit 4 from the Socktopus Sock Club. Now I know I say this every time but this really is my favourite yet, which seems appropriate seeing as it is designed by our gallant enabler, Alice herself.
The yarn is Dream in Colour Smooshy in a specially dyed colour Gelato al Pistachio (see how we're all about the Italian) il mio calzino è molto bello.
All I shall say is that the picture above is 1 1/3 repeats into the main pattern (taken first thing this morning) and it's now two and 2/3rd. I'm also eyeing up the blue smooshy in the stash and wondering whether courgettes could have something of the night about them - any thoughts?
oh yes!! i would love to see these in a midnight mystery colour! moonlight on the blossoms.... ;)
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