Finished socks

A nice weekend day. I went to Twisted in Portland to see what they had for sale. I bought some Araucania worsted and one of the new Dream in Color lace weight yarn colors called Into the Mystic. Then we went to IKEA to try and spend our Christmas money on new shelves. We wanted to get the Markor shelves to match the ones in the craft room, but they were out. We were disappointed but it will be restocked. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) we discovered the food section and brought home some desserts like Blueberry Cake (Blaberskaka), Lingonberry mousse, and Lingonberry jam. We had the Lingonberry jam on corn muffins tonight (accompanied by turkey chili and salad), and had a slice of Blueberry Cake for dessert.




Tonight I finished my daughter's socks. These were knit with Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in a color called Deep Seaflower Blue. I love this yarn. The toes were knit with Black Sheep sock yarn, which I didn't love (too splitty). I used the new Knit Picks Harmony needles, size 1.5. I used the Basket Weave pattern from Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks, but pretty much used the standard heel and toe that I learned from Betsy McCarthy's Knit Socks. Anyway, the socks feel comfortable. These are socks that were supposed to go in a theme gift for Keri for Christmas. She's on her feet all day at work. We have a shoe store in Vancouver called When the Shoe Fits that encourages people to buy shoes according to European standards (more room in the toe) and to wear shoe inserts and thicker socks. This has made a big difference for me and is one of the reasons I started knitting socks to begin with. I gave Keri a gift certificate to this store for some shoes, and made these socks to wear with them.

Here's another picture with them on my feet. I haven't washed them yet as they just came off the needles. I'll wash them and block them tonight and I think Lyn (husband) will take them to Keri when he goes to play basketball later this week.



Finally, I've been reading Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. It's a weird experience because I've always thought of this book as one of my favorites. I had to read it in high school eons ago and absolutely loved it. What is weird is that I have no memory of the first half of the book. I remember the fact that Phillip is orphaned and then I remember boarding school, followed by medical school, followed by Phillip's infatuation with a prostitute. I think we must have read an abridged version. At any rate, this is a different book than what I remember and I wasn't liking it as much. He's about to go to Paris now and I'm just now becoming interested in the story again and suspect I'll finish it. I read The Painted Veil in December of 2006, and it is a much better book than Of Human Bondage. An online book group I follow called The Book Group List is reading OHB right now and I'm planning on reading along with the group this year. Next up is The Brothers Karamazov.