Ruthless Knitting

We recently returned from a vacation in Indiana, during which we visited family, attended my now-three-year-old nephew’s birthday party, and rode 52 miles from Clarksville to Madison on our bikes, hauling all of our gear in trailers, so that we could camp overnight in Madison and then ride back. Though a small disaster did result when David somehow inadvertently released the entire contents of his Camelbak — half a gallon of water? closer to a gallon? — onto the floor of our tent while we were sleeping, resulting in much middle-of-the-night hilarity, the testing of the water-sopping-up capacity of his sleeping bag (not so good) and my Packtowl (much better), and the subsequent sharing of my slightly damp sleeping bag, a good time was nonetheless had by all.

I did not, however, do much knitting. All I’ve got to show for myself is this pair of socks, for which, I must admit, I was responsible for only about a quarter of the work.

These socks were my grandma’s last knitting project (we think) before her eyes got bad and she had to stop knitting. My aunt Cathy brought them along to Grandma’s memorial service in May and passed them on to me to complete. Since Grandma had finished all of one sock and had knit the leg of the other, all I really had to do was figure out what needle size to use and then knit one heel and foot. And thank goodness for that, because to tell you the truth, I just don’t have the patience to knit that much sock leg. I usually stop at around five inches. Sometimes I force myself to knit seven inches. Nine inches of sock leg is a foreign land to me.

All the yarn was provided, but I had to purchase reinforcement thread, and since the closest match I could find is a different color than hers, the socks are not quite identical. It’s easiest to see in the heels. I like them that way. The yarn is a nice, tough, hand-dyed wool/nylon blend of some sort. It reminds me of Lorna’s Laces, but this colorway is not among their current offerings. If anyone recognizes it, let me know!

**Edited to add: Thanks to Robyn, who identified the colorway as Jeans (link goes to Jimmy Beans Wool). I think that must be it!

I mailed these off to my dad yesterday as a belated, multigenerational Father’s Day gift. Next up: yet another sock, the return of the Habu, and the continued adventures of Florence.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 8:25 am and is filed under Finished Objects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.