Not a mistake

Here are my warm wool socks, made with some of the purple yarn I was experimenting with a couple of weeks ago. If you look close at the ribbing (click on the pic to enlarge), you'll see that it's, well, asymmetrical. I was about halfway down the leg of the first one, when I noticed the cuff didn't look quite like I expected. You see, I was working with 40 stitches, 10 on each needle. As I worked the k2, p2 ribbing for the cuff, I didn't notice that I was ending each needle with k2, then starting the next needle with k2, resulting in a k2, p2, k2, p2, k4 rib. Since I didn't feel like frogging, I decided it wasn't a mistake, but rather an unintended design element.

While I've made several pairs of socks for CIC with this yarn (hand dyed Lion Fisherman's Wool), this is the first pair for myself. Wow, are these thick and warm! Makes me feel even better about those socks warming up toes in Russian orphanages.

Right now, our weather can only be described as balmy. However, Dave Murray says that is going to change (big surprise - Missouri weather is always changing). He's predicting a very cold January, so I'm glad I'm ready.

I thought I'd try another experiment--an all-wool potholder (a change from the hemp/wool one's I've made so far). I made this mitered square from bits of Lion Fisherman Wool I had lying about--leftovers from socks, small dye experiments, etc. I call it my potluck potholder. It's pretty big--about 11 inches square; I plan to toss it in with the next load of laundry and shrink it down to potholder size. If I'm as happy with it as I am the hemp/wool ones, I have a new use for all those scraps! I used 5.0 mm needles, for a gauge of 4 stitches/inch. I started off with 91 stitches, and used up 2 ounces of yarn. Hope it's thick enough to do a good job, once the felting is done.