Double sock fame!!

My socks arrived! Green lace, just like the socks I knit for my pal!



My pal? Perhaps you've heard of her:



Yes, THE Alison Hansel, author of Charmed Knits, founder of Sockapalooza, all around excellent Boston blogger! I'm almost flustered by these socks, probably the way Grumperina's Sock Pal from Socka-pa-2za felt (she was the recipient of the original Jaywalker socks!)

They fit perfectly and I love the pattern (Embossed Leaves) so, so much! I'm one of those unimaginative types who firmly believes that leaf patterns should only be knit in leaf colors (granted, this does leave a lot of options). One of my jobs as marketing assistant at Webs was to organize the Charmed Knits book signing and book Alison on the podcast. She did a great job of keeping the secret, I had no idea!!

On Saturday I was heading out the door to attend a party for a friend who had successfully defended her Master's thesis (on Maxim magazine). I realized that I didn't have a bar appropriate project. I fully realize how ridiculous this might sound, even to knitters, but please remember that I commute mostly by bus, which takes forever. And what's better than a little drunken knitting, even if you have to rip it out the next day?

I threw a few balls of Kidsilk Haze into my new Monkey bag so I could cast on for the Earth Stripe Wrap, the cover design on Rowan 42. I fell in love with this when I saw it in a promotional poster at TKGA which MAY be hanging in my room, violating my post-college anti-poster sentiments. I'd assumed it was knit in Kidsilk Aura because I couldn't readily identify the colors. I soon learned that Kaffe has paired 14 shades of Kidsilk Haze in different combinations to create entirely new, entirely gorgeous colors. Apparently, all of my favorites--rooting through my stash I realized that I already had a single ball of almost every color he calls for. Single balls that I acquired on random road trips, before Webs was carrying KSH, simply because they were nice to look at.

I'm about 6 stripes in and it's a glorious, easy project. I love stockinette stitch, which makes me a knitting simpleton. Oh well. I've added 6 stitches so I can keep the first and last 3 in garter stitch. I realize that the rolled edges are probably a carefully considered design element but I
abhor rolling edges.

While I'm on the subject of Rowan, Jen had a few apt appraisals of the new issue. We both love when the designers re-knit the items--I find that without the extreme styling and ethereal sets you get a much better sense of the garment's practicality (as well as it's suitability for different bodies). They did this last fall and showed the same sweater on women from different age groups, it was brilliant. I was tickled to see the focus of this re-knit feature: the same tenets of color analysis I've been jabbering about! I created a Flickr set with excerpts from Carole Jackson's book Color Me Beautiful, as well as a few pictures of the Rowan design team in their season appropriate knitwear. Inspiring, no?


CR

Sock FAME!

UPDATE: They arrived! My pal originally gave me carte blanche and when I investigated her site I found that she is a prolific, generous sock knitter! I inquired about her preferences and she said that she's been loving green lately, and lace. I'm not the best lace knitter...I hope the yarn is crazy enough to distract from my 'creative' solutions to lost YOs and forgotten decreases! We both grew up in Europe (she in Austria and me in Germany). I'm obsessed with Austrian art and sent her a ball of the new Hundertwasser yarn.

I'm finally mailing off socks to my sock pal--I hope they don't mind that I waited until the last possible day of the mail-off. I'm including some treats for her very adorable children. I had a lot in common with my pal but I am going to hold off on revealing more until she gets my package.



My sock pal will also have the distinction of wearing a sock that was a prop for a recent Lexie Barnes photoshoot! I love this picture, the photographer said I look like an architect's wife. I feel right at home in Lexie's tableaux and I can't shut up about the bags, especially my semi-new Darling with it's holsters for my water flask and umbrella!

Pattern: Belle Epoque from a friend's upcoming book Two-at-a-Time Socks
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Silkie in Beryl
Needles: Knit Picks, an assortment of the Classic Circulars, Options interchangeables and DPNs.

Notes: The yarn is pretty inelastic and fuzzy...I didn't love it as much as the classic Socks that Rock which is like perfectly kneaded bread dough (not the first food analogy I've used on this yarn). The pattern is written for the socks to be knit two at a time on one long circular using a sort of Magic Loopy configuration. I did that for awhile to test knit the pattern then switched to DPNs for speed's sake. This book is going to be a stunner, just you wait!

Lastly, I wanted to thank everyone who commented on my last post. Blogging is sort of like my personal pensieve but it's nice to know that people appreciate my often rambling posts. This Ravelry thread about what makes a good blog was...a bit frightening.

More soon,

CR