Oh what a lovely day we had today!! A deep frost last night turned Wellington into a pretty winter wonderland this morning, and heralded a gorgeous, brisk, sunny day. Ahh! It was my version of a perfect day. It made me feel like a new woman! I wish all of winter was like this. I didn’t even really mind being inside – I’m lucky to have a window, and it streamed warm sunshine on to my back all day. :-) We need more days like this.
The lovely day inspired a bit of fessing up about my current sock fetish in the last few minutes of daylight this evening:
I thought they might be pretty put on to a tree like a bunch of Christmas ornaments, but it hasn’t quite worked like that… I probably need a fancy DSLR to get the shot I want.
Anyway, here are the watermelon socks:
Ignore the strange rotation – loading portrait shots are a bit ‘hit and miss’ at the moment. This is the self-striping Happy Go Knitty dyed yarn. Aren’t the stripes so pretty!!! This has to be my favourite way of knitting stripes. No jogs to navigate and no ends to weave in! They’re like magic… If you’re in Auckland, and happen to want some of this prettiness for yourself, I see she’s doing two markets this weekend.
And here are my new ‘waiting’ socks (to keep in my purse for when I’m out and about and need something to occupy my fingers):
It’s funny that they’re almost the same colour range as the watermelon socks. There’s a story about this one – it’s the very first ball of sock yarn I ever bought. It’s a now-discontinued Opal yarn called Acapulco. More magic self-patterning yarn. When I first tried knitting socks I bought this yarn, and as hard as I tried, I could not manage the small needles and relatively fine yarn. I’d only just taken up knitting again, so my coordination was obviously not as good as it is now! Anyway, I put the ball of yarn away, and thought I’d never be able to knit such thin yarn. Haha!! Famous last words.
Another funny story with this yarn – I was knitting it on the bus when a lady across the aisle from me asked (very politely) why I needed a second pair of needles? I looked blankly at her for a minute before realising she must never have seen a pair of socks being knitted. Is this still possible!?? I explained (showing her the sock) that this was a sock and you used three needles so that you could knit a tube and then you didn’t need to sew a seam. She was very interested. I was quietly amused.
Below, I introduce the second sock of a secret test knit I’m doing for a lovely friend (more about that another time). I’ve used Flagstaff Alpacas’s super-squishy, yummy Alpaca/Merino/Nylon blend sock yarn. They are soooo squishy (really squishy!!), soft (see that gorgeous halo?), and amazingly warm. I’m totally in love. They are going to be my bed socks. I never thought I’d wear socks in bed, but ah well, what one is reduced to when one has no nice warm person to cuddle up with at night! Best of all, I noticed (be still my beating heart!!) that Flagstaff must have received some new yarn from the mill at last, because there are pretty.new.colours…
And finally, here is the first of another pair of the same test knit socks:
This is Opal Hunderwasser, in 6 ply. In my defence, I was working through the pattern techniques for clarity!! That’s why there are two pairs of test knit socks in varying stages of construction… 
And you know what? I’m still eyeing up sock patterns. It’s out of control. The knitting deity’s recent punishment has obviously had no effect whatsoever!
