Going Toe-Up

Socks are comfort knitting to me. I learned to make them early in my knitting days and have never counted the number of pairs that I have made - surely 25 pair or more. After my mother died, I knit many, many socks - no creative energy, but I needed to knit. The following Christmas, everybody got socks! I use a couple of recipes to make the socks I like to knit, relying on Ravely, Ann Budd's Book of Knitting Patterns and the Blueberry Waffle Sock [note that these are written for size 5 needles!) that I return to whenever I need to knit socks and don't really have a plan.

Having purchased a couple of skeins of a sportweight sock yarn on sale, I realized that the skein is a bit smaller than usual. I decided to make my socks toe-up even though I am a very serious devotee of the cuff-down method. But I don't like socks that are too short and I wasn't sure when I would run out of sock yarn, so toe-up, here we go.

OK - the toes are a bit pointy. They will flatten out. But like many of the faux Fair Isle patterns, the sock is endlessly enjoyable as I watch the patterns happen before my very eyes. I have been reading patterns as I get ready to take the next big step - the heels. I think I am going to use the ShortRow heel as in Leyburn. Lime and Violet even pointed me to a video that demos the 'newer, better' technique.

Dance news: the OFB gig went well. I called lots of fun dances including the medley I did not get to call on NewYear's Eve. I predict great things for Great Big Taters: fiddler Jane Rothfield, Hilarie Burhans of Hot Point fame on the banjo and Bernie Nau on the keyboards. Not a huge crowd by OFB standards, but most contradance groups would be impressed by the ehthusiasm if not the size of the crowd. Here is the link to the YouTube video of the New Year's Eve Masquerade Ball. Odd to hear one's disembodied voice.

The weekend: Spending quality time in the fiber room - dyeing, photographing packing fiber for both the Etsy shop and my Brick and Mortar accounts. I hope to get a bit of spinning done too. Oh, and grading quizzes and papers!