Yarn, gift yarn, souvenir yarn, and socks.

Last week I remembered that, while I knit for charity and I knit for loved ones and I knit to create garments for myself, I knit primarily because I like knitting. Knitting is, or should be, fun. The things currently OTN were not fun. What I really felt like knitting was... socks.

So I cast on a pair of socks.

According to the photo metadata, I bought this sock yarn in June 2010 and, going by the other photos surrounding it on my hard drive, I bought it in Kalispell MT.

Here.

Yep, time to knit those puppies.

A couple weeks ago a package arrived in the mail. This was when Smokey was sick with the wound infection that we didn't know about. The package and all the rest of the mail sat in the mailbox at the end of the driveway for several days before Elder Son and I picked it up. I was very surprised to find a package for myself; hadn't done any online shopping in weeks. What could it be?

(Camnesia struck. I have no photos of the package nor of its contents.)

It was a sock kit from Kym, who had surmised from my bulleted blog posts that I was under a bit of stress and needed some love. What a sweetheart! Yarn Hollow merino/bamboo/silk sock yarn and a pattern that I had admired on her blog.

I pondered that yarn for the better part of a week until I figured out a plan. The pattern was written top down using a US#2 needle; I prefer to knit socks toe up, foot on a US#0 and leg on a US#1 or 1-1/2. While we were on the North Shore I figured it out (mostly) and cast on.

Something I have never had before: two different socks OTN.

Both have progressed past turning the heel since I started the post. And both socks are, in a word, delightful.

I needed to wind the hank of Yarn Hollow yarn into two equal cakes before I started the socks, but I had no ball winder, swift, nor scale with me in the mini-mini-motorhome.

LYS to the rescue!

This yarn store was just a few miles up the Shore in Tofte. I had been there before and liked it (photo is from 2010). So I popped in, picked out some souvenir yarn to salve my conscience and earn some brownie points from the clerk, and asked if I could wind some other yarn. The store owner stopped in while I was busy and admired my yarn. Both she and the clerk are very nice people.

My purchases:

   

At left, some Lambs Pride superwash wool worsted to replace the mortar and pestle holders I made last year and which subsequently disappeared. At right, two skeins of Frog Tree Pediboo to make a pair of fancy stranded socks (photo below kinneared with my iPod). I also got a pattern for a baby set because the sample on display were so cute. 

As I was driving home from the North Shore I started counting in my head how much sock yarn I had at home. Not all my fingering weight yarn, mind you, just the yarn specifically destined for socks. I quit when I had counted eighteen (18!) pairs of potential socks at home in the stash. In other words, I really, really, really needed those two skeins of Pediboo ;-)

Comments

[gayle]

But we've all agreed that sock yarn doesn't count. You're fine.

[Lisa]

Gayle's correct! And yarn never tells ME it wants to be socks anymore... Good for you!

[k]

I am an epic failure as a knitter. I doubt I have yarn for more than a couple pairs of socks right now. Which, considering the amount of yarn I unearthed when the basement flooded and I had to go through everything is astonishing.
And Kalispell? Is not the backwater cow town I have stashed in my memory anymore, is it? At least they left the buildings standing.

[Erika]

Ooh I love those stranded socks!

[Lorette]

Good shopping haul! And only 18 socks-to-be? Oh dear, I'm not telling how many are in my stash...

[Chris]

Only enough for 18 pairs? *pshaw*

[Soxanne]

Even Yarn Harlot says that sock yarn doesn't count (I was reminded of this when purchasing souvenir yarn in Rapid City, while muttering to myself that I really don't need more yarn). For me, souvenir yarn doesn't count, but I've traveled kind of a lot this year...