Lichen 3.0

Nancy Bush, as I am sure any knitter would agree, is a sock knitting queen.  I was lucky enough to take a class with her at Stitches Midwest over a decade ago and she is a real delight.  Her Folk Socks book was the first sock knitting book I ever purchased about 22 years ago now.  One would think all this fan girl talk would result in copious socks but any blog reader of mine will know I do not consider myself a sock knitter.  Tho I do knit socks.  Probably a lot more than I think I do considering my husband and myself plus my child all have socks.  It just doesn’t seem as if I am knitting them! Case in point Lichen from Knitting Vintage Socks:

Lichen

 Ignore the couch.

This is a basic 3/1 ribbed sock with an unusual heal and toe-or at least unusual for me since I usually work a short row heal and toe ala my other favorite sock pattern-Michelle’s Basic Socks.  Michelle’s are a 4/1 rib and was my go to sock pattern for a long time.  Lichen I knit twice in the span of a week way back when.  I knit myself a pair out of gray yarn and a pair that was made out of self striping yarn.  The self striping was for a gal who admired the first pair while I was at a women’s retreat so I whipped them out super super fast.  Plus retreat is code for lots of knitting time and no cooking, cleaning, children etc.  At the time {2006? 2007?} I posted about what a difference yarn choice can make and this will be another example.  I made this set out of Alpaca with a Twist yarn and I can already tell they are not going to last nearly as long as my Regia-ish {you know the Regia type of yarn} gray pair which is looking worn.  But they are cozy warm and I love them already.

More fun details.  I *believe* I started these when I finished Strokkur so Nov 2017.  I finished these yesterday so Thanksgiving 2018.  I am starting to think I should stop calling myself a knitter given that I so rarely knit.  But it was such a large part of my identity for so long I am struggling.  Ah well

Yarny days and knitterly evenings