Knit One, Purr Too

Socks and their relations

Phew, it's been a while, hasn't it. So let's see, since I last posted, I've signed up for Mystery Stole 3 (and I still need to rummage through my stash of lace yarn to figure out what I'm going to use), finished two pairs of socks (one nice boring stockinette only; one fiddly pair full of cables), joined Dish Rag Tag, just because dishcloths have been on my 'someday I ought to' list for long enough, and this sounds like just the motivation I need, bought and distributed several colors of Dark Horse Fantasy yarn for a secret project (and if it also lets me use up some of that extra yellow yarn from my mom's sampler square afghan, well so much the better! We will not, however, speak of the fact that this does require me to make MORE YELLOW SQUARES. Sigh), survived a zombie uprising (or did I?), and oh yes, saw the Yarn Harlot.

Here she is, speaking at Copperfield Books in Petaluma. I find no small amount of amusement in the fact that, of the four author readings I have been to in the last year, three of them (Terry Pratchett, Christopher Moore, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) have been at Copperfield Books in Petaluma.

And here we all are - the Yarn Harlot, holding my nearly completed Cablenet socks, my knitting mom, and me.

And here are those same socks, in all their completed and cable-intensive glory. The pattern is Cablenet, which appeared in the Fall 2006 issue of Knitty. I used US 1's, and did the optional heel where the cables go all the way down to the bottom. I also made a slight modification to the pattern (not intentionally, mind you, but I liked it so much I kept with it) to have the cables continue all the way around. This involved slipping stitches back and forth between needles in order to deal with cables that crossed at the intersection. Amount of swearing - surprisingly minimal, all things considered. These were made out of Lang Jawoll Superwash, and the color shown in the picture with the Yarn Harlot is actually true, they really are that hot pink.

After the Cablenet socks I needed something nice and easy. So I grabbed this ball of Lana Grossa Meilenweit Fun Stripes from my stash (the color, for those of you who like to know this sort of thing, is #638). These are my default sock recipe - 64 stitches around, using US size 1 double pointed needles, 1 inch of ribbing, and the classic slipstitch heel flap.