Monday 30 September 2019

A Sock Post

I knit a bit on my Sock Monkey Blanket this weekend, but it is getting too large to work on during the intensity of an F1 race.  I keep an end of it tucked under my arm to take a little of the volume out of my lap so it is no longer a fast drop, fast pick up sort of project.  Too bad because up till now it has been great to work on for race day. 

Too bad too,because every one of my sweaters is at a point where I need to have time and thinking to knit them.  Dad's vest is the same.  The back section is almost done and is at the point where I need to watch so I put the back neck in at the right row as well as repeating what I did on the front shoulder.

All I had ready to work that was good race knitting was socks and after working on the Meilenweit socks earlier in the week, I was a tad bored.

So I grabbed another ball of sock yarn and started another pair. 

It is a yarn I picked up in Saskatoon at the estimable, Prairie Lily and is new to me.  Cascade Heritage Prints has a long history on the market, it just wasn't a market I visited before and I am always game for something new. 

It seems a fine sock yarn, but honestly, now that I have worked with it for a bit and I can see how the pattern is working up, I'm not sure that I like it. 


It feels like it is missing something. 

The yellow sock would be the most boring sock in the world if it wasn't for that punchy bit of strong  vivid black.  It sets off the intensity of the yellow and emboldens the khaki.  It sets the whole picture on it's path to right and good.  I am pretty sure that strong contrast is why it ended up coming home with me on the epic sock adventure of 2019.

The Meilenweit is lacking that.  There is no punch to it.  I like the colours well enough, but for all that there is that rich turquoise and that lovely emerald green to set off the orange and blue jumbled sets, it has no punch, no in your face contrast to pull your eyes to it driving you to stop and really look at the sock.

Maybe I have been looking at too many Monster socks lately and have enjoyed knitting them to my own colour preferences switching bits out as I go, but the new socks are boring and I think I am going to pull them back and add a couple rows of deep navy or crisp sharp black between the stripes. These are such summer colours in a way and maybe that is part of what I feel about it.  It isn't summer any longer. Winter and its depths need something a little beefier a little sharper.  This is part of the endless fascination of sock making.

And also sock wearing.  It snowed a little last night.  Calgary and points south got a very heavy snowfall.  Ours is more of a sympathy snowfall, reminding us that it is that time of year. Wool season has arrived!

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