In May I not only participated in the Sheep and Wool Festival, but I also began taking care of my mother. She’s been very ill, suffering with breast cancer and severe nerve damage. For some unknown reason, when her body detected cancer cells and tried to destroy them, this her activated immune system in an unfortunate way. Her body attacked its own nervous system. She has been in the hospital or in rehab since mid June and we’re not sure if she’ll ever come home again. It’s been very difficult, time consuming, and emotionally draining as anyone knows who has been through this sort of thing.
My customers have been wonderful! It has been encouraging to still be in the arts and crafts world, selling yarn, thinking about designs, and talking to customers and other business women. Along with friends and other family members, knitting has been a great source of comfort. Socks are a small project to bring to a hospital visit, so I chose to embark on two sock patterns.
First was from “The Intentional Spinner” by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. The project was called “Perfect Socks.” Instructions were to spin some Merino roving into 230 yards of 3-ply yarn. This I did, although I am only an intermediate spinner and my yarn came out a bit thick. I used Miss Babs 80% Merino, 20% Tussah Silk Top, colorway: Snap Dragon. At least I had enough yarn and dutifully followed the pattern for these short little socks. There was enough leftover for my granddaughter, Naomi too. We got to wear our socks together once!
While I knit the adult socks one at a time from the cuff down, I knit Naomi’s pair from the toe up, wanting to use up every bit of home spun yarn. From the “Sock Knitting Master Class” book by Ann Budd I learned “Judy’s Magic Cast-On.” which is a form of Turkish or Eastern Cast-on. This makes a toe-up start nice and tight and invisible.
I used this cast-on again to start my second sock project, “Terpander”, also from Ann’s book. This time I knit both socks at once, using the magic loop concept learned from Melissa Morgan-Oake’s popular book, “2-at-a-Time Socks.” It was very helpful knitting both socks at once because the Terpander pattern was rather tedious.
I seemed to have thrown out the label for the yarn. So sorry! However, I must say that the pattern was well written and the yarn I chose seemed to fit the project well. I’m quite thrilled that both socks fit me well. And I must say that I did knit a swatch both times first, which helped a lot. I tend to knit a bit on the lose side and my previous socks were always a bit big. So swatching finally gave me success! I used a slightly smaller needle AND took out 4 stitches from the pattern on both ends. I’m ready for the fall!
