Heel Stripes from Gentleman’s Sock in Railway Stitch

Sometimes I believe I have Knitting ADD.  Not only do I suffer from an inflated sense of how much I can knit but I also grapple with what to knit next.  Now admittedly, in my defense, I used to knit professionally and am well aware that I can whip out a sweater in a week.  Back in the day when I didn’t have failing eyesight, bad neck issues, and a full time job outside of the house.  

I have a habit of purchasing the pattern I will knit next, or the yarn I must cast on right away. My latest pattern acquisition is the lovely tam set designed by Lorraine aka Twisted Traditions called The West Wind.  I am fairly certain I have most of the yarns called for in my stack of shetland yarns.  Maybe missing the pink she calls for but I need to look at numbers on my hanks since I do not believe the colors are actually named. Anyway I am on a low to no buy yarn binge at the moment and hope I have everything listed–mainly because the # 1 reason I was drawn to the pattern was the colors she picked.

To get to the shetland yarns I have been wading through boxes and bags of yarn picked up for those small projects such as socks and mitts.  I decided to combat my Knitting ADD {KA from here on out} I would bag up all the sock yarns and put them next to my newly assigned knitting chair.  I also put my bag of Buachaille yarn purchased just when it was being released with the sharing same name booklet. Kate Davies is a lovely designer and writer. Her old blog, Needled, was one of my favorites.  I do admit that the new layout does not appeal to me although I am sure that if I delved closer I would find it equally informative.  But that one or two sentence just doesn’t draw me in at all.

Anyway onto the what am I knitting content.  Currently I am working on what I believe to be the loveliest socks ever knit in the universe.  In large part to Nancy Bush’s pattern and the excellent dye job on the yarns.  Deep stash: one of my precious two hanks of Sundara Sock yarn and Sanguine Gryphon {Verdant Gryphon as of 2012} combined to make the gorgeous stripes pictured above. My youngest, ever honest, told me that they were not the most beautiful socks imaginable since knee socks in those stripes would be lovelier.  boo. Still I believe these will fall into the most gorgeous items I have ever knit category.

I have also talked to a friend about making me a blocking frame.  My back can no longer take the bent over pinning out of shawls which was, as I have mentioned before, not something I enjoyed in the first place.  For this reason my Stonington is still awaiting blocking.  But in the meantime I am going through washing all the woollies, checking for repairs etc, prior to putting them away for summer. I found two holes in my Inky-Dinky Spider Stole which makes me want to cry.  I actually parted with the extra hank I had post knitting so am see sawing between knitting another, helpful in the stashdown goals, or finding a few yards of the yarn I used, not as helpful since asking for a few yards from somebody is trickier.  If you are not one for looking at holes please have a yarny day otherwise witness the sadness:

Okay that is it for now….

yarny days and knitterly evenings~ Elka