Wednesday, September 10, 2008

A purple patch


After all that talk about how my basic colour choices are changing; I've reverted to type...


I finished these on my week off at the end of August; on the way back from hunting elephants in Norwich with Rosie, actually. And I still haven't blogged that. But I finished these socks just before the train got into Ely, and had half an hour to wait, so I dug the other one out of the bag, put them on, photographed them, took them off again, put my shoes back on... and the woman on the bench next to me didn't turn a hair. The Yarn Harlot talked about this phenomenon on Saturday, but my most extreme experience with it is represented by this photo and this post. Two women and a small child lying on a blanket on the Backs, waving their sock-clad feet at King's College Chapel and being photographed; and not one single person of the many who passed asked what we were doing. OK, Cambridge is quite a strange place at the best of times, but you'd think basic curiosity would have motivated someone... Follow the link to the post for Anne's free pattern. (Actually, Anne, I've just realised that your socks were rightfully mine - they match the sweater I was wearing there terrifically well...)

Back to these socks though.
Pattern is Firestarter, from Yarnissima (a free pattern, worked toe-up like Yarnissima's others).
Yarn is Socks that Rock lightweight, May's club yarn from the Rockin' Sock Club
Needles 2.25mm


On Sunday, I intended to spend the whole day writing my management assignment - I've been doing a course at work which has been 12 full-day courses over the last 7 months, and finishes off with a 3,200 word assessment; which is due in on the 19th. I sat there, and sat there, and couldn't think of a thing to write for hours. So I thought maybe some theta brainwaves were called for (you had to be there on Saturday, you really did), and I couldn't even concentrate to knit, which was just weird, frankly; so I got the spinning wheel out, and picked up some purple roving I dyed in August with the odds and ends from Jan's birthday present, and followed Samuraiknitter's brilliant instructions for dealing with roving, and made something which looks more like actual yarn than anything I've made on this wheel so far. Pics follow:

Not perfect, as you can see... about chunky weight, 133g and 100m; but I'm ridiculously proud of it. So proud that it deserves a tryout on the Tranquil Face, despite his current marjoram haircut.

I have the impression that if he could talk, he'd be saying "Duuuuude"...

And I woke up at about 4am on Monday morning with three of the eight answers to the questions in draft in my head; which just proves this theta business works. (And has no sense of timing - today I finally managed to write these ones up...)

6 comments:

Susie H said...

Beautiful new socks, and lovely lovely yarn. I think I need more purple in my knitting life!

Daisy said...

I'm going to have to try that - need to write my chartership personal statement this weekend...

Anonymous said...

Samuraiknits blog is a great discovery - I particularly liked her review of Vogue. Thanks for the lead Jackie

Spinningfishwife said...

But it is GOOD yarn. Texture, colour and it looks to be balanced. Nuffink wrong with that. If you want machine-like perfection, you need to buy machine made yarn otherwise what's the point?

Rosie said...

That yarn looks pretty perfect to me and the serene face certainly looks delighted. Thanks for the link to Samurai Kniter's instructions. (I particularly like her advice re chocolate. With hazelnuts). lastly, I really must try to get my elephant pictures transferred to the comptuer and on to flickr...

Heather said...

Lovely socks, you can never go wrong with purple :-) And I think your hand spun looks great - and makes good hair.