The Day Before

Getting closer! The turkey is thawing, the shortbread is chilling preparatory to being sliced and baked, with the butter tarts shortly to follow. I’ve got (hopefully) all the ingredients for my version of a full-on turkey dinner — except I forgot the cranberry sauce. Oh well. Few people in the family like it much though somebody will inevitably complain. You watch. Nope, you can’t make me go near a store today. No way, Charlie.

On the Fibre Front I have two finished pairs of socks: my sis’s birthday socks and my class demo pair. These are in good old Confetti yarn but sis’s are a half-inch shorter than my usual version since her feet are smaller than mine. (In compensation, my hands are smaller than hers, but I’m an inch taller. Neener!) Following the example of some of the more helpful blogs I’ve seen out there, I’ll give the stats:

Sis Socks
Started: November 27, 2005
Finished: December 21, 2005 (They were used as demos in my class so took longer than usual.)
Yarn: DGB Confetti, 75% superwash wool/25% polyamide, Col 39105 Lot 4093
Needles: 2 mm Addi Natura bamboo dpns
Pattern: Knitted cuff to toe on 64 stitches with a 20-row 2/2 rib cuff, flap heel and gusset, and standard kitchenered toe.
Finished length to bottom of heel: 8”.
Finished length of foot: 8.5”.
Comments: I like this particular colourway. Hope she does too!

Demo Socks
Started: November 30, 2005
Finished: December 23, 2005 (They were also used as demos in my class.)
Yarn: DGB Confetti, 75% superwash wool/25% polyamide, Col 2604 Lot 4023
Needles: 2 mm Clover Takumi bamboo dpns
Pattern: Also knitted cuff to toe on 64 stitches with a 20-row 2/2 rib cuff, flap heel and gusset, and standard kitchenered toe.
Finished length to bottom of heel: 8”.
Finished length of foot: 9”.
Comments: These ones fit me. Surprise!

I also have one-and-a-half of my fingerless mitts finished using my handspun Aurelia yarn and Marnie MacLean’s Del Mar pattern on Spindlicity. I’ll give the stats when they’re done and I take a photo. I’m liking these muchly. And they’re working up quickly on 3.75 mm needles which are downright fat after the 2 mm ones I usually use. I don’t have a set of 5 in this size — though the pattern works out just fine arranged on 3 rather than 4 — and I only have one set so I have to do the mitts one at a time. It took me a few repeats to get re-used to working on a triangle instead of a square which I far prefer. In the Olden Days, sets of 4 were all you could get. All the English-made aluminum needles were in 4’s. Even the Japanese repackaged their sets of 5 down to 4 for the North American market. When I first learned to knit on dpns, I used to buy 2 sets just to have 5 needles to work on. Now I’d probably buy 3 sets to have 2 sets of 5! And at the price of needles these days that would cost a few shekels for sure. Luckily, manufacturers have seen the error of their ways and most of them offer 5’s now. Must be the pressure of all of us manic sock knitters insisting on having the proper tools for the job!

In further news, in defiance of my languishing Jaywalker socks and the baby gift I should be working on, started another pair of socks in some new brightly coloured Regia 6 fadig (trans: “ply”) that I just got from my LYS. More news coming as soon as I have more than a few rows of knitting to discuss. There’s that darned Holiday thing to get past first. However (I won’t say “unfortunately” because it isn’t — it’s lovely), the T-Man will be around all next week so who knows how much work I’ll get done. He’ll probably want to go out to walk in a park in the rain or something. Awww!

I hope all my blog readers have a Happy Peaceful Safe and Wonderful Holiday!!!
Lots of love from Damselfly's pond...er, house to yours.