In the spirit of more regular posting, a previously undocumented FO: Lady’s Shooting Stockings. These were a long time coming. You last saw them here…
(Don’t try this at home, kids.)
… twelve thousand feet up a Rocky Mountain. These are already well-traveled socks, and I have every confidence that their adventures will continue in their new home with Jen. They were a birthday present earlier this month, and the completion of the second sock is really all I have to show for Socktoberfest this year. Really, it was more of a sweatery October. But here are the specs:
Gentlemen’s Shooting Stockings from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks
Trekking XXL in some long forgotten colorway, one skein
US #0 needles
I really thought these socks were for me. But Jen and I met over a sock exchange, and she’s such a good friend and such a masterful and inspiring knitter that I figured it wasn’t by accident that her birthday coincided with the finishing of Sock the Second. She’s got size 9 feet, like me, and she’d already admired them during our carpools together. (Get thee a knitting carpool buddy if you possibly can.) So off they went to her, and now I’m down to only two mateless swingin’ single socks. I’ve been very good and haven’t started any new ones, but I did buy Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways for Sock Knitters with my sample-knitting money today, and I am awfully curious to try out her wild new ideas. Ms. Bordhi hangs her hat in my hometown, so it’s always a good chuckle to see familiar people and circumstances turn up in her books. She designs socks to commemorate a midnight ride on the sheriff’s boat for her grandson’s birth; I nearly debuted on a little Cessna because the pilot was on his way to the wrong mainland airfield. Ah, island life. I do miss it.
I also miss knitting socks. There’s something so satisfying in seeing them take shape, and there’s very little fiddling with sizes and math and gauge to make them turn out right, unlike my up-against-the-deadline Shibui sweater. Just pleasurable knitting, round and round, with a stitch pattern for interest, and those exquisite wee needles making a beautiful fabric. Call me perverse, but I love my #0’s.
Up next: more finished objects! Yay! And an epic project is born…
Posted: October 31st, 2007 at 3:58 am
Great socks! I’m sure your friend will cherish them.
Posted: October 31st, 2007 at 5:37 am
Lovely browns!
Posted: October 31st, 2007 at 5:42 am
I cant’ believe you were knitting while on horseback! Lovely looking socks.
Posted: October 31st, 2007 at 10:10 am
Yay for finished socks! (I just posted a pair of “just in the nick of time” Soctoberfest socks.) Those are beautiful!
Posted: October 31st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Those are lovely socks! I would so covet them too. Great gift for your friend
Posted: October 31st, 2007 at 11:30 pm
I love the colours! I’ve had that pattern in my queue for a while but I hadn’t thought of doing it in a striping yarn. Very nice.
Posted: November 1st, 2007 at 2:55 am
Oooh, pretty socks! I love those browns. What a lucky friend you have.
Posted: November 1st, 2007 at 4:39 am
oh i’m sure jen will love them! what a lucky girl.
Posted: November 1st, 2007 at 6:11 am
Oooh, an EPIC project?! I can’t wait to hear more! Those are nice socks. Hey, maybe I can set up some of my “swingin’ single” socks for blind dates with yours?
🙂
Posted: November 1st, 2007 at 8:05 am
WOW! They are beautiful. They do the Rockies justice 🙂
Posted: November 2nd, 2007 at 3:04 am
Those socks are gorgeous! Love the Extreme Knitting, btw. I can’t say I spend much time horseback, but knitting while riding sounds both wonderful and just a little dangerous, in a good way. 🙂
Posted: November 2nd, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Those are wonderful looking socks!
Even though I made socks for you last Sockapaloooza, I just forget that you wear a size 9. They didn’t seem that much larger than my own when I was knitting them.
Posted: November 2nd, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Let it be known that Jen, said receiver of the socks, absolutely LOVES them and couldn’t believe that they were being given to her. (I’m even wearing them right now.) The colors are beautiful (yes, I ooh’d and ahh’d over them multiple times, never thinking they might come my way!) and they are expertly knit, not a surprise! Thank you so, Sarah!
Posted: November 3rd, 2007 at 4:02 am
Delovely socks! And I do love me some swingin’ singles! I’m up for our singles swap whenever you are. And when we do, let it be known that I have the exact same size foot as you. How very, very convenient.
Posted: November 3rd, 2007 at 4:44 am
They look toasty warm! I think I had some trekking in a very similar color. Makes me want to knit socks now!
Posted: November 4th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Beautiful socks. It seems I love all of the Trekking colorways I have seen knit up, although I’ve only knit one pair with it myself. It has a lovely feel to it.