hermione's pumpkin jacquard socks

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pattern : Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder
yarn : Patons Stretch Socks Pumpkin Spice Jacquard
needle : US 1[2.25mm]
size : 9.5

These were a lot of fun to make, and I'm pretty proud of the outcome! As you might have read in previous posts I had mixed feelings about the texture not showing enough with the pattern but now that I look at this pair of socks, I don't think a plain stockinette or rib would have looked this good with the striping colorway going on in these skeins. The little bumps really help the scheme, now that I look at it!

The one issue I had with this yarn was its elasticity--it was a bit hard to make sure the first and last stitches on my dpns were snug enough, leaving my socks with these teeny tiny ladders, which haven't happened before in socks I've made so far. You may be able to find them along the very top of the foot in the photo below:

They might even out after a wash or two, so I'm not too worried. Other than that I really enjoyed using this yarn and might buy enough for another pair in a new color scheme.

Not sure if I'm going to cast on another personal project for a little while. I've got a small self-imposed queue of shop items to knit up, so that might be the knitting to occupy me over the next few days.

p.s. happy 100th post day!

yarn-along v

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On the reading front: I finished Franz Molnar's Prisoners last week. It was a little slow at first but wasn't hard by the midpoint to get hooked. I'd like to believe that a bit might be lost in the translation from its original written language, but even then the imagery is beautiful. When I have to put down the book for a bit to sigh and say ..wow, you know it's a good sign.

Hagakure's made quite a few appearances over the last couple of yarn-along posts, and it's for that same reason. That little book's full of really deep words and passages. It would be unfair to not sit and ponder what's been said every few pages, and that's why this little book is still in the currently-reading pile by my bed.

Lord of the Rings is a slightly different story. I'm looking at at least a thousand pages of book to get through, and the size of the thing makes it a home-only type of reading deal. Because it's the kind of story that requires that I set at least an hour aside to focus on it, this book hasn't had very much attention from me.

As for knitting, I'm about 65% done with my Hermione's Everyday Socks!

 Might have said this before but I'd love to work this project once more in the future with a more solid colored yarn. This self striping yarn looks really lovely in this pattern, but the texture looks like it needs a chance to hog the spotlight in a pair of its own.

I'm also working on a number of lovely knit pieces for Bapsicrafts--my hope is to build enough stock to  take part in a craft show or farmer's market, which will take a real while to do!

This post is made alongside many others in Gsheller's Wednesday Yarn-along!

Click-through the image for more information on this yarn-along,

and let me know if you decide to join!