Glacier Lake Socks Are FOs!

Glacier Lake Socks
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Yes, there are now two Glacier Lake socks, and they are Finished Objects (FOs). I actually finished them Friday, but could not find the camera until today. Wow are these comfortable--I like the yarn a lot, but don't think that the vendor (our pal Ray at Knitivity) will be using it any more. I hope the new yarns are equally soft and pleasant to wear and knit with. In any case, I haven't knitted a pair of socks so quickly in quite some time--less than a week! And it was nice enough yesterday to wear them with my turquoise Birkenstocks to the yarn store, where they were praised universally.

I also wore Juliet, which they had not seen yet--wow that is one nice-looking top--but unfortunately a cute li'l beagle puppy dug his sharp claws into it, so some "repair" is in order. Well, you really can't turn down a chance to hold a happy little puppy not even two months old.

I was going to post instructions at some point, but here's a recipe (a more formal pattern is coming):

Cast on 12 or 14 stitches in the magic cast-on, figure-8 cast on, backward loop then pick up in the backs cast on, or other seamless toe method. Use magic loop, two circulars or DPNs, whatever you like. Increase on each end of each side every other row until you have 64 stitches. Do p2, K3 ribbing, ending with a P2 for 4 rows, then one row of purl on the instep and stockinette on the sole. Stop at 2.25 inches less than how long you want the foot, then work the heel in the Coupling pattern in the current Knitty, only over 4 more stitches (this is what I need to write down). When that's done, increase one stitch somewhere and proceed to do p2 K3 ribbing for four rows, then purl a row until you are done. End with at least two rows of ribbing. Sure, you can figure out the sock from that. Or, heck, you can do the same thing in a standard top-down, just realizing you need to decrease 1 stitch before you start your heel.

I just like the way the pattern looks with the hand-dyed yarn. It breaks up the tendency to have spiral stripes.

And next...

Now, I decided after all that thinking to do the Tofutsie yarn in Wendy Johnson's toe-up feather and fan pattern. I even did the short-row toe and heel. My short-row heel sure seems, um, short to me. But, the colorway of Tofutsie (purple, dark blue and turquoise with a bit of light green) is prettier than I thought it would be, even if it is, sigh BLUE.

I'm heading up the leg and enjoying the nice, simple feather and fan. These will go quickly. Which is good, because there was a sale at the LYS and I was encouraged by Pilar the Enabler to get Silky Wook in an incredible grape-y purple to make a sleeveless top. I think I look awful in sleeveless tops, but granted I looked OK in hers. The pattern is called Molly Ringwald and it's from the KnitSimple at the end of 2006, the one with all those Spanish items in it. Pilar's was very light and airy and felt good. Plus the yarn was less than $20 on sale!

Um, I also got two sock yarns. Details later.