Here's to November/December

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These past two months were a real workout for the mind and body. I dove straight into selling at craft shows and collected a lot of knowledge and great experience from those days. My personal mantra this time around was to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’, and only great things have come from playing the part of a braver version of me whenever I had to encounter something scary and new.

I conquered the less extroverted part of me and went with my best friend to see Infected Mushroom in Hollywood—that night was a great way to say goodbye to my home state of California to live in England for the next 6 months [more on that later!]

See you guys in 2014!

fo: her hunter socks

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And they're finally done! These are probably the quickest mid-calf socks I've finished, clocking in at two and a half days. I'm so proud!

pattern : Hunter Socks by Freshisle Fibers
yarn : Patons North America Classic Wool Worsted in Grey Mix, Dark Grey Mix, and Mercury
needle : US 3[3.25 mm]
size : 9.5

These are my "her" Hunter Socks, the second half of my set of two--the first part made about eight (!) months ago for Jason. The socks are meant to hold a meaning to me in how and with what they're made, and I'm happy to see that my plan worked out.

The socks were made with three shades of grey (grey being our agreed-upon favorite er, non-color to wear): Mercury, out of the skein used to knit his fingerless gloves and used as an accent color for both our socks, with Grey Mix and Dark Grey Mix bought and used as main colors for our socks.

I matched the minimal cuff striping as well as the accented toe for each pair, though there are a few differences between his and mine:

  • His has a reinforced heel and toe, both accented, while

  • My socks have a plain toe without the contrasted heel (mostly because I didn't have enough accent yarn left over x:)

  • Also my cuff stripe and toe yarns are two different shades of the grey, which looks quite cute, despite it being done because I was working with the tiniest wads of leftover yarn and a worry that I'd run out.

We can go ahead and pretend this was all done on purpose and not half-improvised like, let's face, most of my projects are. Anyway, still proud, and still excited with how these socks look and feel. I'm another pair closer to a fully handmade sock drawer, for my love Jason and me both. :]

This will definitely not be the last time I work with this pattern. The directions are perfectly simple, easy to follow and hits just the right balance between plain and interesting to keep around. If you want a bit of a break from knitting plain vanilla socks, find some worsted weight yarn in your stash (if you have one) and cast on a pair for yourself or a loved one for the cold months ahead.

..augh it's so beautiful guys! KNITTING IS SO AWESOME!

yarn-along vii

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On the needles: A finally-finished semi-secret gift sock project! (just too excited not to share a too-close hard to read photo of!)

Also still reading Game of Thrones! Not much to report on that, just really enjoying every Tyrion and Arya chapter as it comes. Having this book in digital form makes this book a lot less intimidating to read I find, and a hell of a lot easier to carry around to read in line at the post office. I also found a paperback version of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let me Go at a trunk sale, can't wait to give that book a shot soon. All I've heard of it is that it's ridiculously tragic and beautiful and takes place in some orphanage somewhere, so I miiight have to prepare mentally for it first.

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!