Sock Update

As promised, a sock update. July and August were definitely odd months, careening between wonderfulness (Cooper's and Emma's birthdays, both my daughters' birthdays, Sarah and Mike's wedding) and crap ... there, I said it ... CRAP!

So this gorgeous Hibiscus makes up for it all? Right? Mr. Pug's green thumb is keeping the back yard beautiful and the three fish are apparently happy (or at least alive) and the bird feeders are full of birds and we've been overrun by tomatoes. So, I should just shut up, and quit complaining, right?

Here's my second pair of Zauberball socks--the first will be along in a minute. This is the Skacel Zauberball (which supposedly means "magic ball" in German but which I think really means, "we knew if we gave it a cool name you'd buy it," and I did). Because there's no connection at all between Zauberball #2 (above) and Zauberball #1 (below).

This one is a two ply yarn in which the colors of the plies working around each other create the fabulous ombre effect. So, for instance, you might have bright blue and light blue and then the light blue turns to gray and suddenly your bright blue is grayish and then the bright blue turns to navy blue and all of a sudden your navy and your gray are making it dark grayish blue. Clear? Anyway. trust me--the ombre is created by the plying. The yarn is from Only Ewe and Cotton Too and I bought it at a guild meeting.

The pattern is a Wendy Johnson toe-up but please don't ask me the pattern name--it's a very simple YO K2TOG pattern and in fact got boring because it was dead simple.

Did you think this sock was Zauberball, too? Nope, fooled you!

This is Trekking but, yes, you're right, the ombre effect is created the same way as the Zauberball above (the Skacel Zauberball). This time the plies are pale, baby blue with neutrals like browns, blacks, a little gray, rust, etc. One sock of this pair is finished--the other is about 25% done. It's my standard, tried-and-true Ann Budd sock (with my own innovations) with a 2x2 ribbed instep and short-row heel, toe up, of course. Foot is size 0, cuff is size 2.







That's also the sock that my friend Debra told me she hated. I had to pull the sock aside and soothe her injured feelings, telling her that Debra is a confirmed color-lover and that the neutrals, no matter how beautemous and subtle, simply didn't call out to her. (But my feelings were hurt, too. Oh, well, she'll be sorry when it's fall and I'm wearing these gorgeous browny socks under a pair of dark brown slacks with brown shoes and I look--dare I say it? magnificent in my neutrality.)

What about this baby, stuck here in the middle of the Zauberball lookalikes? Well, I originally bought this Regia yarn thinking it would be a top-down baby sweater but it turns out that the patterning, while perfect for a sock circumference, just looked muddy and confused on a longer row length.

Okay, maybe it wants to be a sock--finally figured out it would be perfect at 64 stitches--each row went around exactly once. But ... Emma saw it and decided it was more perfect for an Emma-sized sock. So, now it's 48 stitches and somewhat less perfect, but let's face it--Emma will never know!

Did you think I forgot? Here's Zauberball #1--I'm so in love with this yarn that the minute I finished these socks, I rushed out to that lovely little yarn store in Pineville, NC and bought more--this time in purple! This yarn is a singles yarn, not plied at all--picture Noro Kureyon but more even and without the barn sweepings and knots. In fact, the perfect yarn in every way. The socks (another Wendy Johnson toe up pattern--Diagonal Lace, I think it's called) are soft and the yarnovers show up well against the more subtle color changes.