In which normal service is resumed

How can it be 11 days since I had anything to say about knitting? I find that very strange. The only excuses I can offer are a rather rampant illness that laid me low last week and the generally hectic tone of my life. Feeble, I know, but they're the best excuses I've got.

Looking on the bright side, an 11 day gap means that I have a lot to say over the next few days :) There'll be progress reports on ongoing projects, and undoubtedly some squeeing over new patterns that are joining my craft queue. But first I must present progress to date on my first pair of Christmas socks (intended as a gift for a dear friend from University). I have christened them Harvest because of the rather autumnal way the yarn is knitting up.



So, what to say about this project?

• The yarn is Apple Butter from http://www.applelaine.com in a wonderful shade called Earthly Delight. I am finding it really soothing to knit with, although it splits slightly more often than the Opal or Regia sock yarns that I have used before. The wonderful colours and softness more than make up for that though.
• The shape of the sock looks a little odd because I am using a mock cable lace pattern that I found in the Koigu fun socks booklet. When the sock is worn, the pattern will look something like this :

I'm really pleased with how effective that is, and it's very simple to do. Maybe I'll summon up enough courage to do proper cabling on the next pair.

• Rather than using the heelflap method set out in the Koigu pattern I decided to go crazy and try my hand at the short row method. The only instructions I had for this sort of heel were ones that I got free with the last ball of Regia that I bought, and it was soon very clear that they had originally been written in German. But I persevered, and ended up with this:

Not too bad for a first try, I thought. I've still got a bit of work to do in perfecting my stitch wrapping to prevent eyelets forming, but the basic method doesn't scare me any more.

So there we are. One Christmas sock nearly done, only another gajillion to go :)