Books and more

Here’s the picture of the completed Hippy Crunchy socks. I like how they look rather well. I decided to use only three pattern repeats, partly because of the time crunch. I needed to hurry up and finish them. I’m happy with the result, so I’m calling it a design decision, not cheating.

Notice how the stripes match fairly well, until the colors suddenly diverge, about 2/3 way of the instep. There wasn’t a knot in the yarn; it just changed, a very long pattern repeat, I guess.

And, just for fun, here’s a photo of all the gift socks before I mailed them off a few days ago.

Clockwise from top left: Railroad Rib in Tiger, Little Shells in Ladybug, Maple Leaf in Owl (this was an extra pair I knit pre-blog early in 2006 for just-in-case), Negative Bricks in Parrot, and the Hippy Crunchy in Flamingo. Farewell and wear well, zoo socks!

Now, as for Christmas… it was nice, lovely, and simple. I didn’t get any yarn, but I did get a ton of knitting books and magazines, so it was a lot of fun to browse through them.

Clockwise from top left: Poetry in Stitches, Designing Knitwear, Vintage Knits, Folk Socks, Knit 2 Together, and And So to Bed….

I was asked for a list of subscriptions or current issues I had, so I didn’t receive any duplicate magazines. A lot of fun variety here. Left to right: Simply Knitting (from the UK), INKnitters, Knit N Style, Creative Knitting, and Knitscene. (I think my bookshelves are on the verge of bursting!)

I also got a digital kitchen scale, which has already helped me in dividing up a skein for a future project, some mystery and fantasy books, an alkaline-powered screwdriver, and the Murder on the Orient Express game. I can’t wait to play this. However, I need to finish And Then There Were None first, which I received last Christmas, yikes!

Happy New Year!