July 08, 2007

Knitting Canadian


Blue Moon sock candy
Originally uploaded by miminh3
The Tangled up in Blue socks knitted with Blue Moon Sock candy ("Banded agate" colorway) are finished, courtesy of sitting in the back of a car for many hours on the way to Canada. I followed the pattern except that I continued the K2P2 rib on the heel flap instead of slipping stitches and I did not use the drop stitch pattern on the leg (it didn't look good with this colorway). I will probably give away this pair of socks because they're too big. It was a good learning experience though - it was my first time knitting cotton socks and my first toe-up heel-flap sock.

Even while on family vacation (aka 3 non-knitters and me) in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick I was able to stop at three yarn stores. In order to support the Canadian economy, here's what I brought back with me:
- Lucy Neatby's DVDs on sock knitting and two skeins of Celestial Merino
- patterns by Ilga Leja and Sivia Harding
- one skein each of Seawool, Woolie silk, and Cashlana all in the same "Lupin" colorway. I've wanted to sample these yarns by Fleece Artist/Handmaiden so I'll knit a shawl with all three yarns. If I can find a lupin lace pattern in Barbara Walker's treasuries, I might even design my own shawl.
- some spinning fiber (Polworth, Kid Mohair and South African fine top) from London Wul.

Did you know that effective April 1, 2007, non-residents of Canada will not be reimbursed for the HST they paid during their visit? This is a bummer considering the Canadian and American dollars are almost at par so getting the HST back was one of the incentives for shopping there.... OK, who am I kidding?! I'll buy yarn regardless!

I just learnt that one of my co-workers is moving to another department within our company in two weeks. She is really sweet and I noticed that she likes wearing scarves at work so I'm fiercely knitting a Knitted Wings Seasilk shawl for her.

2 comments:

Mango Kiwi said...

those are very pretty! i like the contrast in the yarn.

AR said...

Great socks!
That shawl will be gorgeous. Don't forget to show a pic!