Hold that thought

Sometimes life gives you intriguing new potential go-to sock yarn...

 

and sometimes it gives you a loved one's hospital emergency. Sometimes that emergency happens to the person for whom you're the appointed decision maker, too. 

 

At least the hospital in question is pretty.

With lots of gardens!

Canadian healthcare, eh? 

I bought this yarn online as comfort food when things were just bad, and it arrived when things were a lot worse, and it is delicious. 

 

It's Briggs and Little single ply pretty untreated sport weight yarn, which is to say it is scratchy and full of plant fiber, but whoa is it amazing to touch. 

 

Not soft, not silky, but... kinda alive?

Like, all the little nerves in my palm perk up when I hold a skein. Finally! they say. Something we can really work with and examine! 

My feet might not be like-minded, but I'm pretty sure the yarn will soften up enough with the miracle of Soak Wash to make it a real contender in the Great Sock Experiment. 

I want to cake it and cast on socks with it SO MUCH. Even though the socks I'm currently testing out are really satisfying to knit. But there is just no time. I'm coming home from the hospital at night so spent, I don't know how any nurse ever manages to survive a month in that job. In the morning, I can only gaze longingly at it as I rush out the door. In between, I'm navigating diagnosis / treatment / companionship and then updating all the other people in our circle as to what's happening. 

This whole thing has been on the horizon for a while, and will cap more than 96 years of life for the person whose approach to it is utter calm and acceptance. I mean, what more can you ask? I can't let myself be the one to rail against it. But the situation requires a focus on dignity and love and administrative excellence, so this Hug is going to have to serve as a placeholder for a week or three while things unfold.

As I say, hold that thought! And if you have any tolerance for 'rustic' wool yarn, do yourself a favour and try out some Briggs & Little. So affordable and so, so crunchy.

Let the experiment begin

Lots going on at Hugs here this week, with tiny buffer zones of summer walking and sock knitting. Which skirts us ever closer to the need for different sock knitting! To that end, I picked a yarn for the first Sock Experiment.

It's Malabrigo Sock's 'Myths' colourway. And I can tell from the look of the two cakes I wound from the one big 100g cake, the socks are not gonna look the same, SIGH.

Brace yourself for a brief moment of negatives:

There are several criteria my new favourite sock yarn will have to meet, and Malabrigo Sock has failed on the first three. 

My beloved Vesper Sock never runs less than 100g and is always generously a bit more. Malabrigo Sock: 100g on the nose. 

And though Vesper Sock is hand dyed into stripes, and therefore no pair of socks will have exactly the same colours at heel flap or toe graft, they are at least comparable. None of this one sock lighter than the other stuff.

Worse, Vesper Sock is proper fingering, allowing me to use a 2.5mm square needle (round needle equivalent, 2.25); and Malabrigo Sock is 'light fingering.' Which meant I had to make the very hard decision to size down to 2.25 square needles, and cast on more stitches. 

I'm going to have to accept a shorter leg on this pair (a failure to meet functional standards) to compensate for the reduced yardage and tighter gauge... or else sub in another yarn to make stripey extensions on the leg (a failure to meet convenience standards).

However! all is not lost. There is a positive that balances some of this out, like the gorgeous blue sky is even bluer against this wafting cloud from my walk the other day...

 ... and this includes my having located my 2.25mm square needles despite their not being in any of the little knitting stashes I have in the living room, dining room, bedroom, and office. You'll never guess where I found them!  

in the knitting needle file boxes I keep in the basement. 

Who knew I'd actually *use* that thing, when I finally set it up after years of accumulating tools?

I wrestled with the change and challenge of new sock yarn for a couple of weeks before I could make myself go looking, but once I found the smaller needles, that decided it. I'm casting on eight more stitches and accepting shorter, potentially more hardwearing, socks by squeezing the gauge tighter.

Last night I found a show I wanted to try on Netflix: Murder Mindfully, a black comedy with some Nordic Noir feels. Once I'd settled onto the sofa in Treehouse Cottage (TM), I got to work casting on all those stitches and doing my tidy 1x1 ribbing for the top of the sock.

 

For an hour or two all I did was knit and watch that show. Like I said, there's a lot going on these days, and I've been mindful in my own way to block out some quiet times. Even so, I didn't expect to be thrilled to include such tiny takes-forever knitting in said quiet. And yet...

It was so *peaceful*. At the tight gauge, with these colours I'm really loving, and the tiny precise neatness of the needles, I could simply breathe while I worked. 

And when I was ready to go to bed, I'd finished the cuff! Even though I had to do two extra rows of it than uusal, to get the same distance as with my Vespers. 

I'm gonna be knitting these socks a long time though because whew, do they ever not grow fast.

Now the sun's come out and I don't want to miss any of these lovely late summer days, so I will take my leave again. I hope you enjoyed my Vicarious Walk pictures taken over the course of the week, and that you have a lovely day and weekend... see you next Saturday!

 

 

Whatta heel

My self-stripey sock adventure has hit a milestone and never fear, I have documented it! But first: heel flap.

 

I've knit this pair's heel flaps as I always do, but I'm thinking now that I could have a harder-wearing heel if I slip every other stitch, every other row. Next time! when I'm trying out the very thin Malabrigo Sock (which is in fact very thin - light fingering, as opposed to fingering, which I normally use.) 

 

Gosh I love these shots of matchy-uppy stripes. I did offset the layers a bit so it wouldn't be boring but you know, with hand-dyed yarn you can never be quite sure both socks will match perfectly. And in fact they don't ever, completely... I always end with one toe having a few stitches of a different colour, and sometimes as much as two rounds of it.

But back to the slipped stitch technique: I can work that stitch along the entire sole of the foot to resist wear... a bit of a nuisance, and it'd use up a lot more yarn, too, so I'm pondering the best design approach to incorporating a second yarn as there's only so much in one skein. Not sure just subbing in a contrast heel and toe would be enough for somebody who takes a size 7 shoe, or larger!

Okay: time for a look at the first heel turn on this pair.

This is typical, with a colour change partway along, in this case a little green bleeding into turquoise stripe, but more notably, a ton of that turquoise getting knit before the short rows for the heel shaping. You can see it there on the left of the centre 'triangle'. Every sock I've ever knit with this yarn has done that. 

Now take a look at the second heel turn.

P E R F E C T I O N ! ! ! !

I almost want to frame it, and never wear it, ha!

With this sock, the purple strip started at the very last row of the heel flap, so that the entire turn is perfectly balanced. It was such a lovely surprise! I may never notice it once I'm wearing this pair into the ground, but just now while I'm knitting them, it feels very special.

Special enough for its very own Hug? I vote yes. It's too nice a day to spend inside, even to celebrate a beautiful sock in progress.

So thanks for dropping in to share the moment with me, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend! 

See you next Saturday, possibly for Sewing Talk, because I have an idea for a super glam evening skirt I might be ready to articulate by then. Or not, ha! 

 

 

 

 

Auditioning new sock yarn

I couldn't decide which of two yarny glamour shots was the most fetching, so you're getting two very similar ones in this post:

And now, an explanation. As part of my long weekend celebration negotiations I traded a visit to a tank museum for a visit to a yarn store. The tank museum came first and ended up being SUPER interesting, go figure, so I tossed the yarn store idea as being impractical and unnecessary since I still have loads of yarn stash despite having Stopped Buying Yarn (except for project-specific emergencies, ahem) some years ago. 

Of course as soon as I got home, I realized that sock yarn shopping is very, very necessary as I still have not found a substitute for my beloved 100% merino wool Vesper Sock, which stopped shipping to Canada years ago because our postal service kept misplacing parcels. 

(If you are reading this from the US, I highly recommend buying a great deal of this yarn. Like, more than you think you'll need. There's no nylon in it, so you may have to darn the heels and toes over time, but it will be worth it. Because there's no nylon to interfere with your enjoyment of knitting and then wearing 100% merino wool.)

Ready for the second glamour shot?

This. This Malabrigo Sock is the *only* yarn I could find, after nosing around online on returning from the tank museum, which is 100% merino wool, an equivalent weight (more on that in a moment) and reviewed well per our friends at Ravelry.  

These reviews all complained that the ensuing socks all wore out in the heels and toes because they have no nylon in them, but honestly, the twist looks a bit tighter even than this purple strand of Vesper, don't you think?

 

Or maybe it's just a bit thinner. I can't tell. The yardage runs a tiny bit longer over the length, I do know that.  

You also need to know that I did my sock yarn hunting online and ending up buying all three of these skeins from Granny Bird's Wool Shoppe, which has one of the most wonderful yarn store names I can imagine, and also, a great selection of yarn on top of fast shipping. Highly recommended!

 

Today's Hug includes a pop quiz.

Question One: which yarny glamour shot did you prefer, the neatly lined up one or the scattering?

Question Two: which bridge view do you like best, the quiet one or the rapids?

 

I can never get over how different these two sides of the bridge are, even if they're both 'water running between green stuff'. So brown, the day I took these... we've had lots of rain and it's stirred things up.

 

Okay this pretty much concludes today's discussion of Sock Yarn Auditions. In the absence of any other contenders, and please feel free to advise me of others available to this Canadian knitter if you know them, we're competing between colourways here. 

I'm betting heavily on the denimy blue Playa to be the yarn most likely to result in differently patterned socks, and Myths to be the yarn most likely to match the fall walking shoes I've got my eye on, and Pearl to be the yarn that looks even less like purple in sock form.

Which of these three categories will win my heart the hardest is what we're watching for, basically, and I doubt you'll wait long to find out because with fast dwindling supplies I'm scared to knit any more Vesper until I have a backup in view... while simultaneously re-hooked on sock knitting.

Thanks again for dropping by and also, for indulging me on my vacation weekend away looking at tanks. Please have a wonderful rest of the weekend! and I'll see you next Saturday.

 

Oh, and here's a picture I took post-tanks of a beautiful garden. Disclaimer: it's part of a cemetery. But it came out so bright and cheery, I just had to share and extend a hope that your day is as technicolour!

 

 

 

 

Treehouse Cottage

A couple of weeks ago when the heat was so bad we really had to stay inside, I moved all the furniture in our (air-conditioned) bedroom and renamed it Treehouse Cottage. Welcome!

The first edition was kind of stupid, with our tall headboard jutting out into the rest of the room and blocking the view of the window from the door, so I only intended it to last for a few days. Then I made this tweak, turning the bed to let more light through, and now I'm smitten! There are so many different places I can work in here now - two standing desk areas, a seated desk area, and a sofa to curl up on. 

But also, the bed converts into a tree-adjacent lounge and knitting area, complete with shifting sun patches as the leaves outside move in the breeze.

 

And how pretty will this view be, come autumn? 

Part of my motivation for this change was that my friend Caro's just bought her first house, and it's a stunning century home... I mean, so much swoon, and super inspiring to me to take a fresh look at our own place. It's fitting that I get to curl up today in my Cottage Nest (TM) and watch a bunch of her HIGHly recommended YouTube book videos while making some sock progress.

That strawberry mug on her side table was from me. So proud, ha!

I'll be going out later for more epic walking, which I've been doing tons of since the weather cooled down a bit again. Here are some random flower pix I caught on my travels:

 

Yellow and purple really are lovely together, aren't they. We also went further afield to the Toronto Islands this week, where I got a different look at the CN Tower than is possible from my usual vantage points. In case it's too subtle to register from here, it's the tiny vertical to the right of the setting sun that's beaming from the right of one of these heavy branches: 

I know, I know - more tree! I do love them.

Hard to believe our summer weather's getting close to halfway done. This year I intend to enjoy it a lot more than usual and do more of my writing at night. High time that outings got priority scheduling, right?

Hope you're getting in some fun outings and/or getting the most out of wherever you make your home. Thanks for spending this time with me and I'll see you again soon! 

(Not next Saturday though - it's a long weekend, and I might be kicking up my heels - but I'll definitely be here to share something crafty or otherwise fun on August 8.)

Meanwhile... doesn't this sock look perfect for summer? Or very early fall, when it's cool enough to wear them, but nobody's ready to let go of those lazy hours. Not that I have my eye on a pair of bright green walking shoes that would totally go with, or anything... 

 

 

 

 

Inside and out

This past week involved a lot of Inside Time (weather issues) and no knitting (who picked Jurassic Park for movie night? Nobody can knit with sweaty hands!) 

Thankfully the inside of our house is full of nice things to look at. These paintings are by my friend Wrona, and they are teeny tiny compared to her usual huge cloudscape canvases which she paints with her hands while sitting on top of them. There's a video of her at work, at the link!

Anyway: we had a fleeting few hours yesterday that were super nice out, so Pete and I grabbed our chance for a big walk into the ravine, and I took pictures for you.

This is a shared path for cyclist, dog-walkers, runners, walkers, and people who just want to be around a lot of trees. (me, waving both hands.)

There are often some really interesting species of fungi to look at!

From the edge of the path you can see it's quite a drop to the more groomed gardeny part of the park. It might not show in this picture, but I thought you might love it anyway. I do, especially from this safe distance, heh.

By contrast, this is the view looking up:

Forests: they are such classics, all over the world.

When you get to the bottom of the trail the bike path goes on into this meadow. It's different in every season but summer lush greenery is my fave... I'm always surprised by those tall buildings in the distance.

 

In reality, the ravine is bordered by busy roads with traffic you can trick yourself into believing is running water. Isn't it wild that in the heart of a big city, you can just wander into all this green space? I feel so, so lucky to be near enough to walk to it.

 

Water runs through the whole ravine, and the paths twist and cross over it in a bunch of different places. Those last two pictures are the view from either side of a bridge. I can never decide which I like best! Do you have a favourite?

Queen Anne's Lace dots so much of the path in this part of the park. They're super elegant. 

Here's another little section I love. These two trees that look like they're somehow dancing together!

Or maybe just talking.

Today the weather is terrible again so I'll be staying in and revising yet another manuscript. After all this time, I still love writing more than anything, which is saying something, isn't it? 

Hope your day is wonderful, whether you're stuck in or otherwise. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you next Saturday! 

 

Flower power

Sooo... I was sick all week. Too sick for knitting or sewing or anything crafty, really. Instead of our usual Hugs fare, let's look at some gorgeous flowers!

A super talented friend arranged these wildflowers in dollar-store drinking glasses for centrepieces at a 50th wedding anniversary party and I absolutely loved them. 

Some of these petals are so tiny!

 

While I was sick I moved from sleeping, to listening to podcasts and falling asleep during them, to streaming shows and sleeping on breaks from them, until finally I was well enough to read a book. 

My pick: Rosemary's Baby. Not that I'm a horror girl, but I'd heard it was well written and I cannot argue that point whatsoever. It is FABULOUS. I might have to stop when it gets to the really scary bits but the opening chapters I've consumed so far are just so easy to read and hard to put down. Lucky I slept so much the last few days, amiright?

 

Ira Levin, who wrote it, also wrote The Stepford Wives which I had not known was a book. Definitely a theme there, for me and for him. But his first, A Kiss Before Dying, was such a fantastic film I am pretty sure I'll have to read that too. How did I miss all these greats? Probably because I was on the Classic English Lit track. Anyway: gifts for my future self, as I always think of them. If you read everything at once, what's left for later?

Since this subject is less Hug than Boa Constrictor, let's move on. The good news is, I'm mostly all mended now, and have celebrated by cleaning and dusting and washing my sheets and pyjamas for a fresh start that doesn't involve lying in or near the bed all day. 

And with luck, next week will include something craftable you'll enjoy more than my horror movie musings. Until then (and please note that I am not at all mentioning the tiny caterpillar I found on this desk a couple of days after bringing in these arrangements aiiiieeeeee don't worry we ushered it safely back outside) thanks for coming by and I hope you have a great weekend!