Well, the day has FINALLY come! After leaving Ottawa on September 22nd, my lovely daughter, Justine and Stephen, her BF, are coming home!!!! They fly into Toronto this evening and we’re heading off there to pick them up! Watch out for the exploding lady at Toronto Pearson today! That will be me exploding with JOY!
I finally finished Stephen’s socks. They were made with Knitpicks Essential in the colourway “terrain twist”. I didn’t particularly like knitting with this yarn. Because of the ‘twist’, I kept splitting the yarn as I knit. I had a lot of trouble with these socks — not sure why.
Knitpicks Essential
I’m happy to have finished these. Thanks to the owner of Janey H. Knits for the sock forms.
Last Saturday, Feb 14th, I enjoyed my first visit to Janey H. Knits in Perth, ON. What a wonderful find this wool shop is! I shop in Perth approximately once or twice a month, but had never been to this shop. They had some beautiful sock yarn from Apple Laine - first time I saw this yarn. The yarn is 65% wool, 20% mohair, 5% silk and 10% nylon. words can’t describe the wonderfully soft, sheen feel of it. I bought the colourway “garden party”. I can’t wait to start with this yarn!
Apple Laine Apple Pie "garden party"
Apple Laine label
Here they are: Harry Potter “Tonks”. Also, my first mismatched pair! These knit up very quickly, considering that I found the yarn to be quite fine. I used KnitPicks Harmony 2.5 mm DPNs.
I have been following a thread on a Yahoo socknitters group about whether one should match the 2nd sock to the first when using self-patterning yarn. So far, it looks like about a 50/50 split. Some people strongly believe that the socks should match, others go out of their way to not match. So far, I’ve tried to match my socks - it’s been pretty easy. I just take notice of what colour I start at, and then I make sure I start the sockinette part, heel flap and toe with the same colours. Being that I like symmetry, I like the look of the matching socks. With that being said, I just made a major change to my thinking with the Opal Harry Potter socks that are currently on my needles (see my post re: on my needles now) A complete pattern is about six inches before it repeats. With my sock formula, I would have had to discard about 4-5 inches of knitted yarn to “find” the colour/part of the pattern where I started the first sock. I just was not prepared to do that! So, I’m really venturing out of my box here by just starting with the yarn where I finished up the first sock — and these two socks will be totally different. Can I live with this? I’ll have to wait and see if I can. I may have to grin and bare it. I’m not sure I could give away, as a gift, a pair of mismatches though.
Just had a brief four minute call from my daughter, Justine, who had just landed at the airport in Barbados, and she said to me “mom, we’ve escaped from Nepal”. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that the kids have had an eye-opening experience that will stay with them for the remainder of their lives, but I’ve never been so happy to hear her voice and to know that both kids, and their significant others, have landed back on North American soil (well, the West Indies is technically in the Americas, right?)
To make a long story short…Justine & Stephen left for India back on September 22nd - found India to be intolerable - went to Nepal - finding it to be slightly better than India - then for a month in Thailand (very civil) - then back to Nepal for 2 months, which they found to be “this gong-show of a country” (quoting Justine).
Chris & Anna’s trek began the first week of November with two weeks in Thailand with Anna’s family - then to Nepal with Justine & Stephen.
Needless to say, as a mom…As of this afternoon, I’ve expelled the huge breath that I have been holding since September…The kids are all now in Barbados visiting with family - and all is well with the world.
