Stranded

I started a new project and it's stranded!

Around here it's been all about the stripey yarn for so long, or maybe speckled or otherwise colour-mixy, I have neglected the possibilities for combining colours more manually. (Unless you count the sweater that killed my arm last January, of course.)

Also, it's finally getting cooler and I was excited to bring some Stoddart boot sock yarn back into play. This is, if you may recall, a now out of production wool/mohair yarn produced from the fiber of local animals, then hand-dyed by a brilliant colour artist and farmer. I will cry when I eventually work through my stash. In fact this week I spent valuable downtime hunting for someone else producing anything similar. Got nada. Either it's wool and mohair and undyed, or it's dyed and not the fiber combo I want, or it's not super local, or it's dyed in pastels instead of these vibrant hues. 

Lesson learned: there are times when it is one's duty to overbuy a favourite rare yarn. And thank goodness I did. No beating myself up for that choice!

Anyhoo, I got through the leg on sock number one and then stopped because I couldn't decide whether to make a tweak to my heel flap plan.

Normally, I start the heel flap at the start of the round. But that means the messy seam of the sock, where all the colours came in and no amount of tidy finishing conceals the fact, is on the side of my leg. 

 

What if I started the heel flap one-quarter into the next round, so that the messy seam goes down the back of my leg, were nobody's going to see it unless I'm already walking away from them? 

Like I say, I couldn't decide. I might do the other sock and get it down to the heel flap too, before I call it. I also have to choose whether to strand the heel flap this time too, to make it more hardwearing, or actually hold the yarn double. 

hmmmmm

AND I still haven't decided whether I'm felting the giant stranded sweater from last winter. But I'll get to it. I'm pretty focused on writing the next manuscript right now, a job I have only about four weeks left to complete. WHAT was I thinking lining up editorial feedback with such optimism.

But that's a problem for another panicky day. Right now it is SATURDAY and Saturdays are for happy times. Hope your weekend is great, whether it's a long Thanksgiving one like I'm having (hello fellow Canadian!) or just a regular long one or not a long one at all! See you next week and thanks as always for joining me, even if my head is kind messy and exploding with ideas and overcommitment.