Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas around here without a few pairs of socks and other stuff for feet, and the push was on in the last few days to get all the footwear out the door. I made my deadline for all of them, excepting one pair, and I’ll show you those soon. (They’re done, I swear it.)
First up, two pairs of French Press Slippers, knit out of Cascade 220 in a colour I can’t remember right now. Mouse brown, really.
My mum and Amanda are both addicted to these, and they were both wearing sad, worn out specimens, my only regret about these is that I didn’t make three pairs, because my feet are pretty cold.
Next up, Ken’s annual pair of Christmas Socks. I think I’ve just about met my goal of keeping him in handknit socks all winter, and all I need to do now is come up with a pair or two per season to replace any that wear out.
He’s good to his socks, so they last a long time, despite a ton of wear, and that means he deserves the good stuff. This is String Theory Continuum – knit in my standard toe-up recipe to preserve the width of the stripes.
It almost hurt to give them to him. If we didn’t have a 30 year friendship I wouldn’t have been able to do it.
Last, but certainly not least, Joe’s Christmas socks. Remember the problem I had? I’d decided to "stretch" the yarn I was using (Valley Yarn’s Huntington in the poetically named "grey") because two skeins wasn’t enough for his big feet, high insteps and preferred leg length. I used some leftovers from a previous pair to put in stripes on the leg, and stripes on the foot to give me the extra. (Pattern: my sock recipe from Knitting Rules.)
Problem is that at some point after I’d used the contrast for three instances of the stripes (leg, foot, leg) the little ball had gone walkabout… never to return. (I’m reasonably sure it’s under a hotel room bed in Northampton MA) Joe’s way too much of a plain dresser to go for stripes of a different colour on the second foot, so I came up with another plan.
I ripped back the foot of the finished first sock (that’s heartbreaking, a few days before Christmas, let me tell you) and reclaimed the little bit of contrast. Then I found another yarn that matched, although it wasn’t the same, and worked that in.
It worked pretty well I think, especially since I don’t think Joe knows it wasn’t my intention all along, and it gave him matching socks that aren’t too wild, just the way he likes them. I was pretty hard to buck the instinct to say it was okay to have them not match, especially at midnight on Christmas Eve.
Finally, two points to those of you who noticed that the sweater for Myrie has matching pants, hat and bootees. (I’m not really giving away points. I don’t know why I said that. Fresh out of segueways.)
I’d originally planned to do them, but then Christmas got the better of me, and I changed the plan and left them out, but the wave of guilt I felt last night reading your comments got me back on it.
I’m at least going to do the hat and bootees. That’s the hat there, brim done (except for the miles of duplicate stitch) We’ll see about the pants. I’m sort of worn out on pastel baby stuff, no matter how cute, and my annual bout of Startitis is in full swing. It’s all I can do not to set projects from last year on fire, never mind knit them.
What am I going to do instead?
Now that the tree is down, the wheel is back in it’s spot, and it’s calling me.
(That roving may or may not be what I spin. I reserve the right to be fickle.)