Knitting in the middle of the night

I don't know about anyone else, but I have been bothered by hormonally caused insomnia for years. As I have headed towards menopausal age, the sleepus interruptus has become downright silly. Thus is born my waking at 4 in the morning, and thus is born the times when I talk about knitting at 2 a.m.

Last night I woke at 3 a.m. From past experience, I know better than to do anything which requires counting of any kind. (As Mr. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice would say, "No lace, no lace.")I have learned that counting above 1 is beyond me in the middle of the night. Which really is kind of sad because I do a lot knitting in the middle of the night. I did try some (I'm ever optomistic) in the dark of last night, but well, there will be no photos of that knitting. EVER.

Lets just say somewhere between 3 a.m. and now, I worked on sock blanks. I have a Tutti Fruitti sock done, second one begun, and I started work with Cascade Fixation.

This is really interesting yarn to work with. I wasn't sure how to approach its stretch. I tried and ripped once or twice till I got what feels right. I'm working this yarn stretched at about 3/4. Working with it totally unstretched made a fabric, which, when worn as a sock would leave you feeling strings across the soles of your feet. Working stretched full out, seemed to leave the fabric of the sock looking a little too tight, puckered perhaps, when it relaxed as I worked. 3/4 stretch seemed to produce the best overall result.

Its a little funny feeling as it goes through your hands, not bad, just very different. As if winds through my fingers (held crochet style for tension) it has to change from its unstretched self to its stretchy feel. It goes from feeling like crumpled crepe yarn, to feeling like a kind of impotent rubber band, stretched but just a little low self esteemed. Its a little dry to the touch, but it is 98% cotton. It is unusual, but nice. Really nice.

The best part of working with this yarn is how the sock feels as the stretch relaxes. It becomes a thing of wonder. Its cushy, snugly. Its thick. It just plain feels good. Up till not I have not been impressed by sock yarn without wool but this? This one works.

The members of my family whose home is animal product free are really going to like these. So far, they have been less than impressed, nay even to the point of being non believers in the superiority of hand knit socks. They are (sigh) muggles.

These socks ought to convert them. It surely converted me to great cotton socks. There will be much more of this yarn in my future.