Sock Show Thursday: Send Some April Flowers Already...

Yeah, yeah I know the saying April Showers bring May Flowers but usually I don't have to wait until May to see crocus and snow drops and daffodils. In years past *something* has come up a little earlier and hinted at the color returning to the world after our monochromes of grey, white, slush, and ice.

I used the nearly neon intense colors of yarn for my earlier socks this year, but looking towards spring I started wanting spring colors and those are inevitably a little more pastel. With that in mind, I pulled out a skein in the colorway of Strawberry Banana.

This yarn was purchased after attending a friend's wedding in North Carolina. It's Three Waters Farm yarn and they have a lot of roving if you're a spinner. Pretty colors. I would have liked a neater hand on the labels, they're handwritten and somewhat illegible, but fortunately labels tend to go the way of cat toys around Chez Hedgehog. I shudder to think how many of them are probably under one of the couches.



These are 60 stitches on size 1 (2.25mm) needles and have knitted up fairly quickly. The colorway is charming; the Philosopher described it as "antique looking" and I can see what he means. It looks like colors you'd see on a ladies dress from the Renaissance period, something a little faded but still lovely. Pinks with a subtle orangish color.



Though you're only seeing one sock here (took the pictures earlier this week), I have finished the second sock and these are off to the gift bin.

I knit most of this pair at the Research Data Access Preservation Conference I went to recently. It was fun because the knitters definitely came out of the woodwork of their seats to see what I was knitting, ask about my Color Affection, and a couple of them got to go yarn shopping the morning I flew out (I'm still sad about that).

Unfortunately, knitting in a conference means you start toes at funny times sometimes because you can't try the sock on in the middle of a presentation. So these aren't quite the size I'd planned but they'll still do. I'm thankful for 1x1 ribbing that gives me plenty of options.

And I'm about to start the toe on the first sock at work. I forgot my home knitting one day and ended up taking the Emergency Work socks home to an evening event where there was much knitting time and then back on the train the next morning, where they've returned to my desk.  Now I really have to remember to take skein 2 to work...