The old is new again

Last month, I felt that old, familiar urge to cast on for a simple sock. The kind of sock you can take anywhere. The kind of sock I would normally knit at a conference. Suddenly, it clicked: my big national (but virtual) conference started the next day, and I felt the absence of that sock!

I was so discombobulated that I wrote the wrong year in my notebook... clearly wishing it was 2019 and we were gathering in person.

Those socks got worked on bit by bit, and now they're done:

They fit Sharon's feet and are my standard, top-down sock with 3x3 ribbing on the leg and top of foot. The heel flap is worked in eye-of-partridge stitch:

I think this ball of sock yarn may be the oldest sock yarn in my stash, and now it is a new pair of socks. I entered it in Ravelry in August, 2007, when I first got my account, so it predates that. It's nice to have finally used it. These will seem perfectly seasonal when the autumn rolls around.

I've also been making some progress on my Sanquhar gloves (old design, new gloves). I've reached the point where it's time to divide for the fingers:

The pattern directs me to start all the fingers at the same time, but I've read that many knitters stagger them. This makes sense to me, because when I look at my hand, my fingers don't all begin at the same "latitude" (so to speak). I need to think about how this is achieved, especially because these gloves feature tiny gussets at the base of each finger. This seems difficult, so I've put these aside until a day when I feel really clever. 

Of course, that means I need another easy knitting project. I've started another of the Elemental hats. You'll recall that I've made all 5 designs in the collection (making this an "old" pattern for me), but my friend Heidi admired them all, and I'm making her one - the Katara design. Her favorite colors are gray and "mushroom" (as she calls it), and I have some beautiful handspun mushroom-y BFL in my stash that I'd love to use for something. The cream-colored yarn is handspun Rambouillet. (The green is waste yarn in the provisional CO.)

That should keep me occupied through social knitting. And I need some suitable knitting for social occasions - I'm thrilled to report that later this week, my local knitting group is meeting in person and indoors for the first time in over a year. We gathered outdoors on occasion last year, when the weather wasn't too hot or too cold, too rainy or too windy. We are now all fully vaccinated and this meeting is sure to be a memorable one, with lots of hugs and probably champagne. The old will seem new yet again! I CAN'T WAIT.