The past two weeks have been a real weather humdinger in the Midwest. Today is the first day in MANY with clear skies and bright sun!
I KNOW there is great joy and lightness of heart in many, many households today as the flood waters recede and life can start to point in the direction NORMAL.
I’ve spent many hours in the flood areas working and taking pictures of the dedicated efforts of so many – it is absolutely unbelievable how folks draw together during crisis to work for endless hours in the face of nature’s challenge. MY hat’s off TO YOU: from the groups of High School Students, to Churches, to neighbors, to Girl & Boy Scouts, to Sheriff Sheehan’s Work Release guys, to the 3yo who begged his dad to go home and get *his* shovel because he wanted to fill sand bags alongside him, to the drivers of the personal cars who hauled load after load of bags to their neighbors, and even to the drunk guy who showed up at a sand pile at the edge of the river complaining to the cop directing traffic that his neighbor was messing up his lawn and who was met with whistles and catcalls and thumbsdown by everyone else – TODAY the sky salutes YOU…
And just what could this have to do with knitting? In a word: SOCKS…
Do you wear your wool socks in warmer weather? Me neither. Until last week, when I ran out of clean clothes and started raiding the winter storage, pulling out my woolies.
Wool keeps you warm even when it’s wet; it breathes; it really adjusts to your temperature and fondles your feet. And my barkin’ dog-O-feet know whereof they speak as I was on my feet for HOURS & hours, etc, whine, whine, whine, BARK! [And in the northern hemisphere of my bod, I have so many mosquito bites on my head, it approximates a lunar landscape…]
SO, I’m still knitting socks to wear to work. I’ve gone on to Wool/Hemp – some really pretty organic looking sportweight yarn from Dzined and am making these socks whenever I am in a KIP moment when the space is too tight or the time is too short to whip out the Agnes design I’m carrying with me these days.
This yarn makes a really soft, lightweight fabric that I love wearing – I already have a pair from last year that I wear year round…
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My sister, Cat, is the best flea marketer in the universe. On one of her hunts, she found these Argyle Sock Patterns in with some sewing stash. And off to me they came…
Thanks Sis!!! These are really COOL…
What pretty socks! What color did you use?
nevermind….I clicked on the link and there it was!
Actually, we -do- wear our wool socks year round! In our hiking boots, wool will keep our feet more comfortable than a cotton sock, and lessen the chance of blisters. And if people scoff behind their hands at us with our shorts, wool socks and hiking boots, let’em! We’re comfy!
The Grace Ennis vintage sock patterns are still around and can be found at http://grkp.com – some very cool and very mod intarsia designs. As is typical, I bought a stack and haven’t made any yet, but someday the fuzzy dice will grace my rear-view mirror…
Were you up in Gurnee for the floods? I spent last weekend up there – it was impressive to see the flood waters but so incredibly sad at the same time. It is amazing how communities pitch in and help each other out at times like this!
Hi there!
What gauge are you using for the Dzined lightweight yarn in your socks? I did my usual 64 stitches on size 1 needles with it for a test sock, and it seemed a little too boardy — fewer stitches on 2s or 3s seemed potentially better, but then I am concerned about how they’ll hold up. Thoughts?
(By the way, you can see the photos I took (on my phone) at MDSW at http://moblg.net/blogs.php?show=587)
Ooooh, argyle socks! I’ve been wanting to knit a pair for an argyle-obsessed friend for ages. I just don’t know if I can handle all the tangling….
My husband wears wool socks year round. He loves Socka. I like Sockotta myself (which is a cotton/wool blend). And I’ve got that same argyle pattern, only mine is pretty tattered. I am seriously thinking about doing a pair. I have a lot of vintage sock yarn and that seems like a good way to use some of it.