Osborn Fiber Studio

Here I thought I was so ahead of myself for finishing my first August sock two whole days before August is half-over, and I forgot that I hadn’t even blogged about July’s socks! Oh well. Naomi still loves me.

Yes, the idea of knitting matching socks for baby every month has completely devolved, mostly because after knitting not one but TWO of the sAME ThING, usually putting on a bit of pressure to finish by the end of the month, the idea of knitting MORE of the same thing, STILL by the end of the month (albeit tiny versions thereof) is usually enough to make me want to poke my eyes out with the two ends of my 32″ circular needles.

July ended with a conference that gave me a decent amount of knitting time, both driving back and forth to Mount Lebanon and during sessions when it wasn’t my turn to play with the baby. I finished sock toe #2 on the first day, then decided to make the rest of the sock yarn into a baby hat. I had all the decreases worked out to work the lovely lace pattern into a very fetching crown – when I realized there was no way I had enough time or yarn for that. So I settled for a headband. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that headbands have to be rather tighter than hats, so I’ve ended up with a headband that I can borrow from Naomi until she can finally use it at age 15.

Pattern review: The socks themselves, “New England” from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush, are probably my favorite pattern yet from this book. The lace pattern in the center of the sock is just beautiful. All the double decreases in that side band got tedious, but only because I am a whiney, impatient person. Knitting on the Road was published 12 years ago, well before the sock craze really got going, and since that time, an insane number of pretty, lacy sock patterns have emerged from young upstarts (like yours truly) who were kneehigh to a tadpole when Ms. Bush started publishing. I daresay this pattern holds up with the newest and fancy-pantsy-est of them.

Unfortunately, me and Ms. Bush still don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to gauge. I knit the yarn down as tight as I could without hating my life, but the 70-stitch circumference is a bit on the baggy side (not a lot, though). In order to keep them from being positively man-sized, I started decreasing while still in the middle of the last lace pattern repeat, a bit of cleverness I’m rather proud of. Still, I’m not sure they are meant for me. Not since I know at least one woman with good taste, wide feet, and a steadfast love for grey-blue.

I can hardly review this yarn, since it’s a one-of-a-kind I dyed myself, back when I was testing bases to decide on a fingering weight addition to the OFS line. It took a bit of self-control to cast on with what I thought of as a “reject” skein when there are so many other pretties in the sock stash drawers. (Yes, drawers plural. Don’t look at me like that.) But I was very pleased with how it was to knit with, how it held up, and how it took dye.

In fact, I’ve forgotten up to this very moment why I didn’t chose this base. I had to go check the mill’s website to remember that this yarn has no nylon in it, which according to one theory makes it not as good for socks. Apparently I was picking bases on a day that I bought that theory, though I don’t know why.

But, as we like to say in this house, “oh well!”