Socks are always happening

At one point in my knitting life, socks were the main thing. Once I mastered the basic form, I challenged myself with fancy stitch designs… the kind of thing that is harder to work during a meeting. But for the past few years, I hardly ever knit socks at home. The socks I do knit are plain and simple.

Here is the latest finished pair – these are Boy 1’s Vanilla Lattes I mentioned a few weeks ago. The finished pair weighs only 74 grams, so I have some extra yardage to add to my sock yarn blanket.

Oh, how’s that sock yarn blanket coming along? I try to work one square after finishing every project – as a palette cleanser and also to make sure I don’t forget about it. Sometimes I get excited and do more than one. Right now I have 16 finished squares:

I actually have a 17th square, but it came out too big so I won’t be able to use it in the final blanket. The yarn was just a teensy bit heftier than standard fingering yarn, and it made a big difference in the final square. (It was the Shelridge Farms Soft Touch Heather that I used for these socks, in case you’re interested.)

I’m going to Bali for 2.5 weeks this summer (!!!), and I know the cognitive overload will be intense and I won’t have a single extra brain cell to devote to my knitting. I’m thinking of taking the blanket bits. They pack up small and are totally mindless at this point. I might take something a little more complicated for the (very long) plane ride over… but from my travel experiences last summer, I don’t expect to long for a complicated sweater project.

This is the sock I started as soon as I finished the lattes… This yarn isn’t logged in my Ravelry stash because it’s not mine! This is the skein of Into the Whirled’s Bukavu Sock that Zakiya bought at MDSW. The colorway is “Rimfisher” and it is a 4-ply 75/25 superwash BFL/nylon blend – it’s the skein on the right in this photo:

This is my most vanilla of vanilla socks. 64 stitches, top-down, 2x2 rib cuff, stockinette body, eye of partridge heel, and round toe. Notice how carefully the yarn has been dyed so that you get a nice one-round stripe. It’s very entertaining to work.

For my “challenge” fiber work, I’ve been working on weaving those towels for the past couple of weeks. I will have an update – and probably some analysis – for you next time. Weaving has been happening, too!