Thursday, November 8, 2007

Holiday Glow. Only Slightly Radioactive.

Thanks to the lovely Mrs. Pao, I found myself with some lovely cherry-colored wool that cried out to be made into Holiday Socks.

Unfortunately, I had snapped a critical number of my lace-sized dpn's (I sport a brilliantly needle-eating combination of corrosive hand oils and an extremely - tense - tension), and I was facing a long family session of Battlestar Galactica Watching (Season 2.0) without an alternative Fidgit Project available. And I'm more likely to Make Do than I am likely to hike any sort of distance in order to deplete our tiny bank account unnecessarily. Hey, I *earned* these bad knees.

So I decided to do basic stockinette socks, and let the wool fall where it may.

But after getting to the bottom of the leg, I started to feel that the plain pattern was not doing justice to that lovely yarn. It looked a little... well, bored with itself. Oh, dear, what to do? (DON'T suggest that I could have ripped back and introduced a nice cable or knit/purl pattern. What if all the crying blurred up my eyes right at the point where Starbuck came to everyone's senses and gouged out Gaius' eyes with a conveniently placed set of Addi Turbos? I've got Priorities...)

The wandering ball of cherry wood cozied up to some teensy leftover balls of Koigu. Clearly it was Fate nudging at me. I'm not one to give a big wet razzberry to Fate, so I took the hint and happily fell to, using up every inch of that Koigu. Brilliant!



Well, maybe a little too brilliant, actually. It may not *quite* be a classy color combination. But I won't worry about that. Because, you know, during the Holidays who notices one more retina-searing spot of brightness in the general glow of flickering tree lights, neon Rudolphs, lit menorahs, and metallic wrapping paper?

But what will I wear with them?

1 comment:

Debra said...

They're fabulous-- wear them often!

After reading Lucy Neatby's book [Cool Socks, Warm Feet], I started knitting socks with 'an extremely -tense - tension' as well. On a 2.25 my gauge is usually 10.5 to 11 sts/in.

Before I used Inox greys and Crystal Palace bamboo (both purchased at the Yarnery!), but the coating was sticky on the Inox- and I *still* broke CPs!

The best solution for me has been Knit Picks metal dpns. They're nickel plated, and slide like 'normal' addi turbos. (I don't like the addi/skacel dpns). A few have started to bend-- but only slightly!