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Put A Spork In It

…’Cause it’s done, yo.

Malvina's Embossed Leaves

Yes, I have finished another pair of socks! In about a month, which isn’t too bad lately. These are Malvina’s birthday socks.

Pattern: Embossed Leaves Socks by Mona Schmidt from Interweave’s Favorite Socks
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill in an uber TANGERINE
Mods: various. I hate how the star toe feels (though aesthetically it works better on this pattern) and I love grafting, so I put in a regular French toe, and a regular stockinette heel, and a regular long-tail cast-on.
Oh, and I started the second sock a half-repeat down so the pattern would mirror-image itself. *is a matchy-matchy nerd*

I would up liking the yarn after all.  It works up nicely and let’s face it, the color is great. I am not sure how it is going to wear, and I am not sure how Malvina is going to feel when I tell her to handwash these socks, but whatevs. I still need to give ’em a soak, but I broke the sink plug the other day so it will have to wait. Uncle Evan is coming over tomorrow morning to fix it.

P.S. Malvina your socks are done.

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I am a Sock Machine

Well, I finally finished the purple Waving Lace Socks, like four months late.

Waving Lace Socks, Complete!

They turned out really nice. There is only one major mistake in them, that nobody but me will ever notice (and you can’t even really see in the picture), but I will tell you anyway: On the first sock for some reason on the heel I knit through the back of the loop when making the flap. It twisted the stitches and BUGS ME A LOT but is not actually all that noticeable.

Specs:
Pattern: Waving Lace Socks from Favorite Socks
Yarn: Knitpicks Essential in African Violet
Mods: I think they are half-a-repeat short in the leg and foot, if I recall correctly from LAST OCTOBER.

Anyway, I like them.

Waving Lace Socks, modeled.

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I do actually work on things

I don’t just buy yarn, I actually use it, too:

Berry Nice Sock

I am still really enjoying how the Felici is working out. AND if you look at the sock carefully, you’ll notice that through the grace of the gods, the heel worked itself out so that it used an entire color repeat – so the repeat on the leg/foot wasn’t broken. AMEN. The fabric is very nice as well – but I think you might run into some problems if you used larger needles than US 1.

I finished one Spey Valley for the March Sock Project Sock:

Spey Valley

I like the pattern, and I like the Plymouth Happy Feet yarn, but the two don’t go together very well – only because you can’t see the pretty texture pattern on the leg. I’ll certainly make a second one because I like how the first sock turned out, ultimately. And the Happy Feet is a cheap sock yarn to experiment with.

For the April Sock: Waving Lace Socks from Interweave Knits’ Favorite Socks!

I will fully admit to cheating when I picked this pattern for the April sock. Also I will fully admit to being completely arbitrary in regards to my Sock Project – I am just picking sock patterns on a whim at this point. Heh.

I picked the Waving Lace Sock for a very good reason:

Waving Lace Socks

I have less than one sock to knit, as I made the other sock and the cuff of the second late last year. I need to finish these in two weeks. I forgot how quick a pattern it is once you get going. I knit half a repeat last night while watching NUMB3RS. I also plan on making another pair of these out of the nice dark turquoise Shibui Sock I have. This is a great pattern, and I think along with the Monkey pattern is the pattern I’ve used multiple times (well and my now standard 3×1 rib sock, but whatever).

I have managed to go a week without buying any yarn. Partly because my car is in the shop having some scheduled maintenance and an oil change and I didn’t know how much that would cost (less than I thought!). Also dudes, I have a lot of sock yarn. Like, enough for years worth of socks. (And yet: I’d still like to get my hands on some Wollmeise! And more blue and yellow yarn in general! Maybe some purple! *slaps self*)

Anyway, today I am wearing my old Regia Crazy Color socks and may I just say that they have worn quite well. They are a couple years old at this point, and have held up beautifully through many washings and dryings.

***

I just finished reading the new Dresden Files book, Small Favor. I really like Jim Butcher’s writing, and I pretty much love the Dresden Files, so I was quite pleased with this latest installment. (My favorite is still the first one I ever read, Dead Beat, simply because Harry necromances a dinosaur in the grand finale. Heh.)

I’ve had okay luck at the library lately – discovered Shirlee Busbee’s historical romances, which are well written and interesting (a feat unto themselves, god.), read a bit of Tanith Lee’s Paradys cycle, though it was a little too gothic for me. Now that I’ve read ten billion books, I’ve come to discover that I do, in fact, have discerning taste in stuff. Imagine!