Sock Challenge: May 2006 Archives

A Shapely Tiger Sock and Some Stork Scissors

You might be thinking, right about now, what happened to all the socks?

And, in fact, I've been thinking something along those lines, too. What's up with my current sock project?

Well, over Mother's Day weekend I took my all but Kitchenered Opal Rainforest Tiger sock to be tested out on one or Mom's feet. Surprise of all surprises, math does work the way you expect it to sometimes, and the shapely Tiger sock fit exactly the way it was supposed to fit. So I grafted the toe and brought this sock to completion. I think it's about time I cast on for the second one now, don't you? Especially with a long weekend by a little lake in Michigan coming up.

The second sock I was going to work on was the second sock in a pair for me, the Mermaid socks from Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks, Warm Feet (which, by the way, was also the inspiration for the Tiger sock as well). I've had one sock complete for almost two years now, and it seemed like high time to get the second one taken care of. I did get it cast on before I left for Maryland, even worked on it on the plane home from Baltimore. Only to discover that I made a mistake in the stitch pattern and need to rip back to the cuff. Lots of tinking in my future with that one. But it may head with me to Michigan as well.

And, apropos of nothing, I just had to put my little Gingher Stork Embroidery Scissors in the picture. I've always wanted a pair of those little Ginghers, and the sale at Joann.com combined with my renewed cross-stitch efforts, was just thing I needed to convince myself that I could have a little treat. I chose these for their exceptionally pointy tips, which I hope will be handy for some of the openwork techniques I want to try. If you think steeking is scary, you should try snipping the threads in a piece of linen fabric that you have pain-stakingly put about a million multicolored stitches into over 5 years. It requires some very fine tipped little scissors to make sure you only snip the threads you're supposed to. Watch out experimental test linen! Here I come!

Hi All! Sorry that I haven't posted on the Sock Challenge in a while. I was out of town for the last two weekends (MS&W on the first weekend and on Ann Arbor for Mother's Day to see my mom on the second weekend) and wasn't able to put the post together. I'm also going to be out of town (and probably away from an internet connection) next weekend as well, but hopefully I'll get back to regular posting in June.

At any rate, three cheers for Michelle K, who has finished two pairs of socks since my last post -- you can click on the links under her name to see what she's been up to -- and Carole, who finished a very nice pair of socks for her self in a lovely yellow/orange color as part of Project Spectrum -- click on the link for her "Cheez Whiz" socks to check them out!

I've been a bit slow, but things should pick up now that I've had the chance to let mom try on her first Opal Rainforest Tiger sock (it fit almost perfectly for her, which I was worried about because she doesn't have "standard" size feet.

Without further ado, here's the run down: