Garden Street Designs

In the six months since my last post (egads), I’ve spent my non-working, non-full-out-leisure hours making jewelry, decorating the new master bedroom, traveling here and there, gardening a lot (by which I mean weeding a lot), and knitting. Recently I decided to give sock knitting one more shot, and now I’ve become completely obsessed.

For one thing, knitting socks (or mittens or toques or slippers, you get the idea) in the summer months just makes more sense. I knitted a big wool shawl for my grandma’s 90th birthday in June, but even in May while I was knitting it, it was far too warm for all that wool to be laying on my lap. So I decided to focus on small projects, and specifically conquer my fear of sock knitting, a fear born when I knit my first ever pair (for B), which resulted in lovely socks, but also immense frustration and blisters for me. Wrong yarn on the wrong needles for the wrong pattern. Lesson learned.

So here are the three pairs I’ve made for myself so far (I have many more in mind! The goal is to have 7 pairs done before the end of September, when the cold returns):

Pair #1, using Kaffe Fassett-designed Regia sock yarn that I bought in a cute yarn shop in the old Eaton’s building while vacationing in my hometown of Courtenay on Vancouver Island. (Calling it the ‘old Eaton’s building’ surely dates me.) I used the free ‘Charade’ pattern by Sandra Park available on Ravelry. If you knit or crochet and aren’t on Ravelry yet, join! Right now.

Another view.

Pair #2, using Berocco’s Ultra Alpaca Light yarn and another free Ravelry pattern: ‘Duckies’ by Samantha Hayes.

Pair #3! I’m almost finished these, I have just the foot & toe of the second sock left to do. This is the most scrumptious yarn, Trail Sock Yarn (in ‘Wine’) by Nova Scotia’s own Fleece Artist. The pattern is called ‘Cherry Swirl Socks’ and is available for free on the Fleece Artist website.

Yarn. Boy, do I love yarn. I’m trying to keep my yarn-hoarding tendencies at bay, but it’s difficult with all this tempting, gorgeous yarn on Etsy. Shop names & links are below the photos; clicking on each picture will take you to the Etsy listing:

Million Tiny Fibers

Swift Fiber Studio

To-Ply Fiber Arts

Light Brown Hare

Sweet Basil Fibre Works

River Poet

Lola-Doodle’s

Raven Ridge Fiber Arts

Black Sheep Dyeworks

Here’s a quick game; without clicking the links, spot the Canadian shop!