(flower of the day, squash blossom . . . with beetle)
while i appreciate the fact that the beetle’s dapper outfit (i loves me some snappy stripes) coordinates so smashingly with the squash flower’s color, i do not appreciate its cheeky little way of traipsing across the petals as if it owns the them.
but i’ll let it have its moment . . . i’ll take more of that saturated autumn light, please.
this week has been filled with sock and mitt knitting (always good after getting a big project or two off the needles) and sock pattern writing. still working away on one last deadline, which seems to be under control . . . which makes me nervous.
i am not the best judge of what i can reasonably get done in a specified amount of time.
i mean, it all always gets done, but not always reasonably.
with a quiet work front though, this week has been manageable and lots of knitting is getting done. david is making grand headway on the house during this time too, so we are both feeling pretty good about how we’re spending our time (gotta grab that satisfaction when you can . . . it tends to ebb and flow).
the mitt is progressing nicely
but it looks pretty much the same as the other day. what’s up with that?
heh. well, after looking at the photos i took and trying it on a couple of times i decided it needs to be knit on needles one size smaller. so i ripped the whole thing out and started again.
this time, it’s a perfect fit. the motifs open up better and the outlines are crisper.
it can be blocked out a bit without becoming too large, and that will make the fabric look smooth, as in the swatches (instead of having those bumps between the trees as it does now).
i’m just lovin’ the color here . . it has the beautiful shades that you see in snow shadows, and the frosty gleam in the yarn enhances the effect, lighting up all the edges of the motifs. the yarn is soft and there is zero itch factor . . great for anything with cuffs that you might want to wear over an extended time period.
i stayed with this project all day yesterday because it requires several reorganizations of the stitches and i wanted to keep the architecture straight in my head. i’m taking copious notes on these maneuvers, but they are the kind of thing that, when completed, if i think about them i get all mixed up again (did i move those sts left or right?). it’s easy to knit, but requires a lot of mental gymnastics to design and write in a way that makes sense and flows well.
last night i switched to a secret project that i want so bad to show you cuz it is SO cute. but i’m being good. back at the beginning of this one it was really hard not to blab about it, but now that i am an nth of the way from completion, blowing the whistle on it would be kinda stupid.
i really thought i would break down and cast on some sweater swatches with the red briar rose yarn, but i didn’t. i am being sooo disciplined . . maybe i’m coming down with something?
instead, i revisited the yarn that deb sent me for the fearless fibers sock club finale. i have the final deadly sin—greed—and i thought i would work with a motif that signifies one of the greediest creatures i know of
can you see the acorns hidden between the ribs here?
i dunno about where you live, but where we are, squirrels are furiously racing from one acorn to another right now, taking one bite to put their mark on them, then running off to find good places to hide them all. in the process, they fight hand-to-mouth combat with each other over them, tear up electric wires, break branches . . and basically terrorize every living thing that is in range. and heaven help us if they manage to squeeze through david’s maze of wire mesh into the eaves.
(we have a lot of oak trees on our property; therefore we have a LOT of squirrels—big ugly ones, ones with tails torn off, ones with a single eye or a ripped foot, even some brass knuckles i think. we moved into the squirrels’ house five years ago, and they still commit violent acts of gang rage on us every time we do anything that disturbs their territory. like walk to the garage. they literally sit on the roof and throw sharp chips of slate at david when he cleans the gutters—no lie.)
and i know that other people we know have similar problems with these creatures. so here’s my thought: if a whole sock club of people and maybe some others will knit acorn socks at the same time, it could maybe be a sort of voodoo dance on bad squirrel behavior. if we can just knit enough acorns, round and round, it might keep them spinning in one place til they learn to be civil.
waddaya think?
hmm, maybe we should move on.
lis at one planet yarns and fibers sent me some gorgeous yarn the other day . . . i’m going to design something with it that she and jodi can feature in their wonderful global shop, which sprang out of yarn botanika.
ok, pick your jaw up off the desk . . isn’t that something?
it is their lanas puras fingering weight yarn in the eggplant colorway (and we all know i love eggplant).
this is a soft, kettle-dyed singles and oh man, i can just feel this stuff wrapping me warm on a chilly february night—it has a cozy feeling without much weight—just what i look for at night in winter while i knit. and fingering weight will be a welcome change from all the laceweight i’ve been using (not that i don’t love that too . . i didn’t say that!).
and with that, i think i’ll hit the books for a bit to search for the perfect stitches to do it justice. just curious though, triangle or rectangle—what’s your vote?
104 thoughts on “sock-on”
I vote stole, I certainly don’t need a giant arrow pointing at my ample buttockal region 🙂
Mr. Beetle may be cheeky but that shot is so gorgeous!
Rectangle! And no my jaw is still not off the floor – that stuff is gorgeous.
TRIANGLE..triangle..tri-ang-le….puleeze?
Triangle! Or better yet, half-circle! (Dang, I’m having a terrible time typing – I think I’m still staring at the yarn and can’t really form a coherent thought.)
LOVELOVELOVE the mitts. Can’t wait until the pattern is available. Any chance you’d include a fingerless-glove option, or hints toward a conversion?
Rectangle — maybe 24-26″ wide. Something to wrap up in.
Squirrels!
Wee bastids. We hates them, we does… (Mostly because they sit on our deck and taunt our dog until he goes insane with barking, which gives us humongous headaches).
I like the rectangle… 🙂
a long triangle . . .
and wow – that color is GORGEOUS!
My vote is for the rectangle too. Holy crap that eggplant color is delicious.
You are so good lately, what is wrong here? :-)You’ll cave soon enough for the Briar Rose Fibers, I’m sure of it!
Rectangle…I’m with Debi on the lack of need for an arrow pointing downwards on my back!
rectangle! 🙂
I’d vote for rectangle too. Wow – that’s my favorite shade of purple. It looks so tasty!
I’ve been getting a few beetles in my garden but I’m shooing them all out because since I’m a new gardener, I don’t know which are friendly and which are not…I DO know that with a great big oak tree in our backyard, we have no squirrels (!!!!) but with an apple tree and this new garden, we have plenty of the worst sort of pests – deer. And our fence isn’t complete across the front of our land so they come and go as they like except when my husband and I spot them and run after them yelling and throwing things.
Wow, you’ve got some beautiful stuff going there, but I especially like the snow on cedars mitts. I’ve never knitted mitts before, but I was curious how difficult it would be to convert to gloves. It’s too cold where I live to make mitts practical, but I’d love to try using that pattern with gloves. Do you think it’d be difficult to just add some fingers? (I’ve knitted gloves before, and I have the basic idea how to convert, I think.) Just curious!
That eggplant color is really, really pretty. I prefer stoles, but a half circle, as someone above mentioned, would be lovely. I haven’t tried that, yet. 🙂
And the mitts are genius. A perfect pairing of color and pattern — again!
I feel a strange urge to knit every-single-thing you are/will be designing. Especially those acorn socks… Will the pattern be available to non-sock-club members? Can’t wait for those mitts to be done too, they will be just perfect for our cold Alaska spring!
Thanks for all the inspiration!
Alli
My initial impulse was a rectangle, but I like someone else’s idea of a squished triangle. Something very elegant and sophisticated, with that gorgeous yarn!
Whatever you’re sellin’, I’m buyin’ it – especially if it’s rectangular for backstory reasons previously cited.
That richness of the Lanas Puras reminds me of a purring Ricardo Montalban describing the “rich Corinthian leather”.
rectangle, please? and that eggplant color has me drooling all over the keyboard… i can’t wait to see what you do with it.
i’ll knit acorns if you think it’ll work, but i’m skeptical. my family waged war on squirrels for decades in the suburbs on philadelphia until we finally gave up and moved to california. it’s squirrel-free bliss.
I don’t need no big arrow pointing at my larg”a”sse…soooo I vote RECTANGLE, long and wide baby! omg that yarn is simply gorgeous and I was really sitting here with my mouth open, when I finally scrolled down and you said “ok pick your jaw up off the desk”…I had to look around to see if you were sitting on top of the shelf like a wee angel or something!! my gawd that stuff is gorgeous!!!!!
rectangle, rectangle, rectangle.
I think I need a towel to wipe up the drool – that is some georgous yarn!
as for squirrels – good luck! never had the squirrel problems you are experiencing. however, I was highly offended when my old tom cat and the neighborhood squirrels would hang out together, chase each other, and, the horrors, my tom would groom the darn things. just so wrong.
and the mitts are just lovely, also.
This is the time of year when I am afraid of going in the backyard. Squirrels throw things from the trees.
And I love an eggplant colourway!
Love that wonderful stack of well-loved books! And the marvelous eggplant yarn. My vote is for a rectangle!
Square! Then it could be either. 😉
Rectangle! Something yummy to wrap up in on a cold winter night in front of the fireplace! But if you do that I have to get Hubby to install a fireplace.
Rectangle! Can I get the acorn pattern if I’m not a sock club member? I want the mitts, too – especially if I can make them into gloves! I LOVE IT ALL!
I vote triangle even with my big butt. I love my big butt! Well.. okay not really, butt (haha!) triangles are my favorite shape to knit.
Love the acorn design. We don’t have squirrels here, but I love the thought process behind it. I had a friend who was attacked by greedy squirrels once in Portland. I’ve learned not to be deceived by their cuteness ever since I heard that story!
Rectangle! I really prefer a rectangle.
I’m with the rectangle folks. That yarn is so tremendously yummy — the color just makes it look edible! And I love the planned squirrel voodoo — sometimes ya just gotta fight back with fiber.
Love, love the gold sock yarn!
I’ll always vote for rectangles!! I can’t wait to see what that luscious, decadent color becomes…looks like grapes ready to become some delish vino to me!
Square is a good idea, otherwise I vote rectangle. Trianglular shawls are hard to drape so that the ends are pretty in front. Of course, “Bee Fields” is so drop-dead gorgeous as a triangle that all is forgiven. Also, it is generously sized, so that the triangle is easier to manage.
Squirrels. . .let me share my story: John Deere lawn mower, once around, flame shoots out, what the heck, $900 damage. . .squirrels had built a pyramid of walnuts on the radiator. Geez.
I love the pine trees. You can definitely see them better on the smaller needles. So peaceful. The beetle is very dapper-looking.
As for the beautiful–oops, I mean as for the mitts, they are delicate and stunning! I can’t wait for the pattern.
The socks are so cool. Our last name means ACORN in German. Stunning.
The eggplant lace. . .hmmm. . .I need to think about that one a moment.
I think of a rectangular stole when I think of wrapping up on a cold evening. (I have to finish my Hypoteneuse!)
I really like the acorns!! I want so much to knit something with an acorn design. Here in the valley where I grew up we have lots of Oak trees and I feel a connection to acorns. We don’t have many squirrels in town, though. Your squirrels sound a little scary! Gangster squirrels. Squirrels with mean-looking tattoos. Squirrels that would drive around in low-rider cars with dark tinted windows and deal in illicit acorns.
All about the rectangle. I agree with Debi…who needs an arrow pointing at the tuchus
I vote for a triangle. I make sure the point is offset so it doesn’t point at my ample posterior. Maybe circular? Oh heck, I’ll love whatever you come up with.
I think triangle. Of course, I can’t cast on another shawl until I finish the *cough* four *cough* unfinished shawls I have going…
WECTANGUH!
(Sorry, jaw still on floor)
Rectangle, please! I held out on Bee Fields until the stole pattern came along, and then it was hopeless!
I vote rectangle for a nice wrap you up to keep warm shawl. And i adore that eggplant yarn. Not so big on eggplant itself but I nearly always buy a yarn if it calls itself eggplant. There’s something about that color….
that color is fabulous! I’d vote for rectangular!
Rectangle please. And the eggplant is totally droolworthy.
What about experimenting with a new shape? Circle, square or Faroese?
I remember sitting out under the pear tree at my first house and getting bombed with hard pear cores by a pissed 0ff squirrel. Apparently, we were interloping.
Oh, definitely rectangle. There are a lot of wonderful triangle patterns out there, not as many rectangle.
One of “my” squirrels is frantically building a nest, while the others are gathering food. In the spring, they like to drop chewed up pine cones on my head. And yell at my cat. Impudent little cusses, but I like having them around. Good luck with yours!
Love the eggplant color and I vote stole.
My parents can’t even enjoy their back deck at their cottage as the squirrels are dropping nuts or nut pieces left and right. We wake up to the sound of nuts hitting the roof.
I had a true, for real, huge breath intake gasp for that eggplant yarn. But my jaw stayed nearby. I dearly love a half circle myself, but I’ll knit and wear anything (and give it away, too).
I’ve been thinking this is a dangerous place to hang around. All the patterns are so lovely! Somehow you design to just my tastes and desires (anticipating me – I don’t know I want it yet until I see it) So, yes, this is a fawning fan comment! Love them all in this post, and the last few too.
Dang squirrels. Wonderful acorns. I’ve got just the yarn for some acorns… We have, and by now, hopefully, had mice. They tried to burrow under the carpet on the stairs coming up from the basement. I woke up in the wee hours one morning to huge crashes and thuds – my husband eventually killed one with a shoe, on those very stairs (he woke up hearing it chew on the door). Not a pleasant way to wake up, but it satisfies the vengeful urges.
Lovely mitt. The pattern for the sock is great!!! Love the little acorns.
I say square that way you could always fold it into a triangle.
that eggplant is gorgeous. i think it wants to be rectangular…but i’m sure i could be proved wrong.
i’m really liking the mitts – that frosty green just makes me think of snow on evergreens – and the acorn swatch is just too cute. even if the acorn carriers aren’t!
Oooo wee I can’t wait to see that mitt done, the pattern and color is a perfect marriage! And the eggplant yarn, wow, it’s so rich looking, I totally vote for a rectangular stole, it would be so elegant in that color. Those little acorns are brilliant, I was walking Robby in his stroller this evening and they are starting to fall from the trees here! Those socks are just in time 🙂
Rectangle, rectangle, please, please, please! Gorgeous yarn – loooove it!
Dapper cucumber beetle becomes a very squished beetle in my garden. Come to think of it I have not seen any this year *knocking on wood*. Love the mitts, the starts of the sock- clever acorn pattern, and the Eglantine fingering weight is drool-worthy. Surprise me with what you come up with as a stole. I too really enjoyed todays bright sunlight after all the rain this week- even though we really needed it.
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