Thursday, October 24, 2013

Time Out for Socks

Suddenly, it's cold outside. We've had a blissfully warm and sunny fall (and really, after last spring we deserve it!), but now the tide is turning. Minus one Celcius forecast for tonight. Time to turn off the water to the outside faucet, time to get out the hats and gloves, and time for a pair of new socks. A close inspection of my pale blue Brookline socks revealed that the heels were all but worn through. I knew this would happen sooner rather than later, because they were made from 100% merino sans nylon, and now the time has come to say goodbye to them--maybe. Perhaps I'll get around to re-footing them in a different yarn. How can I just toss out such beauties?
In the meantime, I REALLY need more socks, so I've cast on with one of my Rhinebeck purchases--Shelridge Farm's Soft Touch Heather (85% wool, 15% nylon) in "Fury", a sort of greenish black, or maybe it's a blackish green. Whatever it is, I like it a lot. And this is the sort of sock yarn I prefer. Tough enough to last, but soft enough to be great on the feet.

I think you can just make out the eye-of-the-partridge heel stitch at the top of this photo. It's mid-afternoon now and I'll be done the first sock soon and casting on for the second before dinner. This is the perfect activity for today while I keep an eye on some work we're having done in the house and also outside to our garden fence. The last rose of the season has just bloomed at the sheltered front of our house.

Frost tonight. Won't be long until the first snow.
P.S. The answer to those of you who have inquired is, yes, the Urban Rustic Socks are based on the same cable and seed stitch pattern as the "Petrova" jacket. They should probably be re-named "Petrova Socks", but I hadn't decided on a name for the jacket at the time when the sock pattern was published.


  1. you can mend the heel; the school children in Switzerland had to knit socks, and then the heel was cut out, and they had to fix it. I don't know the logistics, but I'm sure that they can be found on the web!

  2. You're making rapid progress on the socks. I can't seem to do the same & I'm only trying to make 1 sock as a demo. I'm stalled out just after the heel...