Fiber Dreams

I finished Mingus yesterday—after working on the pair since January. It feels like I’ve been knitting these socks forever. I’m so glad they’re done! Mostly because I can now wear them. Woot!

• Pattern: Mingus, by Cookie A.
• Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Nightwatch, 1 hank.
• Needles: Size 1 (2.25 mm), Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs, set of 5.
• Elapsed time: January 16 to May 12.
• Notes: These socks took forever. Or seemed like it. I definitely had some troubles in the beginning. Once those got sorted out, though, the socks were a delight to knit. Very satisfying. This is one of the very rare times that I knit a pattern from the recommended yarn. Thank you, Kristie, for the wonderful birthday present—yarn and pattern. I can’t wait to wear these socks! Between my short feet and the generous hank, I have 40g of yarn left. If I’m careful, I think I might have enough yarn left over to knit a pair of anklets. Maybe. I’ll leave that project for later.

In the meantime, since the CP DPNs are free, it’s time to re-knit Tilt sock two. That means it’s also time to rip back the half sock that I’d done on the other needles.

So. After I re-wound the left over Nightwatch into a nice, neat cake of yarn, I put the outside end of the cake of November Muse on the winder, and… wound. It got a little interesting when the old ball got too small to hold itself down while I was unwinding it, but after that part it was easy. I just pulled the needles out of the offending sock, held said sock in one hand, and turned the crank with the other. Before long I had a full cake of yarn—and no more sock. All is in readiness for me to cast back on this evening.

Kathryn, who’s going to test knit Canterbury Bells for me, did a little online yarn shopping the other day. She’s getting two different shades of Zephyr Wool-Silk, Violet and Ice Blue, and plans on knitting the stole with whichever one comes closest to the actual color of the Canterbury Bells that grow wild near her home. That got me to thinking. How can I possibly justify knitting a blue flower in hot pink yarn? Well, I can’t. So I ripped out the 68 rows of pink knitting that I’d done, and cast on again—this time with a pretty navy blue yarn from Valley Yarns, their 2/14 Alpaca Silk. It’s a little extra work, but it was only four pattern repeats, plus a tad, so it wasn’t all that much. So worth it. Already I’m so glad that I made the change. This yarn is lovely. So, so soft. The color is much, much better. I got two pattern repeats done at knit night last night. End result: almost caught up with where I left off knitting, and I like the results a lot better.

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