Saturday, January 2, 2010

Almost...

Railway socks

This is how close I came to completing my 2009 Personal Sock Club on time - I'm halfway through the last sock of the seven pairs I scheduled for the year. And I probably would have completed this last sock except that in a pre-Christmas frenzy I managed to 'tidy away' the 50g ball of Patonyl I needed to finish the project and then forgot where I had put it. But it's been found (hidden amongst the yarn for another project), and I'm now working hard to finish this pair so I can make a start on my 2010 PSC.

The pattern, by the way is Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Sock in Railway Stitch (ravlink) from Knitting Vintage Socks. This pattern has a particularly vintage look to it and as always with Nancy Bush's socks, I like them more and more as I knit them.

And yes, I am going to repeat the whole Personal Sock Club rigmarole in 2010. It's been such a successful undertaking for me in 2009. Until now, I never would have believed I could knit seven and three-quarters pairs of socks in a year - six and three-quarters of them from the PSC and the eighth for a sock swap.

I'm scheduling seven pairs again for 2010 as I think this has become my lucky sock-knitting number. It's also approximately the number of skeins of sock yarn I have. OK, I do have a few more, but I'm ignoring them for the sake of manageability.

2010 sock yarns

From front to back the yarns are
1 Knitabulous sock yarn in Salwar Kameez. This is the first instalment from the Knitabulous yarn club and I intend to knit the original pattern she's designed - 'Shantaram'.
2 Socks That Rock superwash light-weight in Tide Pooling. A birthday gift from jpofoz.
3 Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Ink. A perfect inky blue. I fell in love with Madelinetosh yarns when I knitted my 'Lichen' socks this past year.
4 Malabrigo Sock in Boticelli Red.
5 Madeleinetosh Tosh Sock in Scarlet.
6 Wollmeise Twin in Hortensie - facilitated by a patient knitting friend. If deep blue yarn can be said to glow, this does.
7 Knitabulous Merino Sock in Count Sockular. This has a cunning small skein of grey yarn for accents.

In making this list I've noted a significant increase in the interestingness of the yarns I have in my stash. I think that the PSC had the inadvertent outcome of making me think about and notice sock yarns to a greater extent - and it developed some significant sock yarn envy. I wonder if that will continue this year?

The Knitabulous yarn for Shantaram has priority knitting status and I will cast on for these the instant I finish my present socks. The other yarns will be parceled up in proper PSC fashion and I'll randomly choose one as each delivery date falls due.

5 comments:

jp said...

What a gorgeous collection of yarn and such an array of colours too. I look forward to seeing them develop into a rainbow of socks.

You have done so brilliantly with the sock club within days of the end of the year is just amazing.

Rose Red said...

I'm so pleased you are doing PSC again! Me, I shall be merely continuing to work on my 2009 club!!

I also noted the increased interestingness of your chosen yarns this year - hurrah for indy handdyed yarns! Can't wait to see what you make with each of them.

missfee said...

love your choices of yarn Lyn - very delicious indeed. I picked out my yarns this afternoon -it was so much fun

Love the ones you have nearly done too. Especially the subtle stripe in the heel.

DrK said...

a fantastic collection to chose from there, i also am looking forward to see what you do with each of these because you are never predictable in that department. and yet again you remind me how much i love vintage knits! happy new year lyn xx

Ruby Girl said...

You have some beautiful sock yarns, I should do similar with my sock yarn. they look great a lined up together and to have patterns already chosen is great.