Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Scarves + Socks = Sanity


When we were kids, we remember every once in a long while being bored. Not often, but occasionally.  When the long summer days just seemed endless and we'd dragged out and exhausted every activity we could think of.

Mom taught us to knit during one such episode of ennui. Ditto sewing. When we were old enough, we'd head off to the library by ourselves, trudging through the heat only to trudge home again with huge stacks of books. We'd lie in the tent which was pitched in the backyard and read for hours.

Alas, although we're old enough, we can't just trudge to the library and right now, we can't drive. So, today we're knitting. We have tons of yarn in our stash ... sock yarns and lace weight yarns. We even have enough DK weight yarn for a lacey summer sweater. But for now, we've started a pair of socks for Mr. Coco to play tennis in and a lovely scarf in a simple 4 row repeat. For whom, we're not sure. Maybe it will be a Christmas gift. It's really not too early to start knitting for Christmas, is it? If you're reading this and you like it, it's also not too early to start sucking up.



We do love mohair!

The socks: Scheepjes Invicta Extra, Colour 1401 (off white and pale grey), 3mm birch needles, 64 stitches with a Tubular Cast-on (our favourite), 2 inches of k2, p2 ribbing, then 3 inches of seed stitch rib pattern... Rnd 1: Knit, Rnd. 2: [K3, P1] Repeat all around..... We're planning an afterthought heel.

The scarf: [Kate, avert your eyes.....this will be too much temptation for you and we don't want to be responsible for you going off your craft diet!] Knitpicks Aloft mohair yarn, Colour Celestial, 2 balls, in Open Twisted Rib stitch pattern. 3.25 mm needles. Cast-on 63 stitches, knit 3 rows even, then reserve 5 stitches in garter stitch at beginning and end of each row (for an edging). Always slip the first stitch of each row. When we've worked up both balls of yarn, we'll end with 3 rows of garter stitch.


There are way worse things than sitting in front of a fan on a hot day and knitting with lovely yarns and good needles while listening to a favourite podcast or 2.

***********************

We Talk Back!

To Monika: Yes, we turned your postcard over because you said not to blog about it but really, we couldn't see why you wouldn't want it shown. It's a lovely beach scene and we really liked the whole concept.

To Kate: We're not that fussy about Earl Grey tea either. We like a nice strong black tea....like King Cole tea from New Brunswick. They seem to know tea  in the Maritimes. We are not embarrassed to admit that, in our quest for a good cup of tea, we once bought a brand (Typhoo) because we caught a glimpse of it on Coronation Street (on a shelf in Dev's shop). It's good!

To Reflections: Glad to have you back!

To Linda: Thank you for your good wishes regarding my eyes.

To Diane: Yes, you and me both! I'm relieved your lovely postcard made it through the postal strike. At one point, they were saying there were 40,000 pieces of mail caught up in the back log.

2 comments:

  1. It's okay, I have some cashmere lace weight fingering that I was trying to make a more complicated pattern with, and keep messing up the pattern. Perhaps I will rip it back one last time...and try this one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sophie thinks the pictures on the screen are very pretty. And that you're the best great-aunt ever. ;)

    ReplyDelete

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