Meditrina

These are toe-less, heel-less socks of my own design. The recipient suffers from arthritis and has acute chronic pain in her ankles. Meditrina is a goddess associated with healing and I hope these help heal. I used my beautiful skein of Mountain Colors Barefoot that I received for entering the Think Outside the Sox contest last year. They are definitely her colors and I know she's going to love these. (Although they were my colors too!)

I started with a Channel Island cast-on from Lucy Neatby's book Cool Socks Warm Feet. I love how it puts the little nubbies at the top. I worked for about 5 inches in 1 x 1 ribbing, then bound off half of the stitches using a tubular bind-off.

I casted on (long-tail) enough stitches to accomodate her extremely swollen instep, continued the 1 x 1 ribbing, and did a few decreases to fit them towards the toe. Then I used a tubular bind-off at the end. I've already cast on for the matching pair of fingerless gloves. I'm going to knit them from the top of the hand down the wrist so I can go as far as the yarn will let me in the same 1 x 1 rib pattern. It's so pretty and gives more stretch then plain stockinette. It's a perfect project to carry around in my purse because I can pick it up and put it down whenever without having to reference a pattern.

The other project I'm working on is my Fraggle Squiggle socks from the Rockin Sock Club.

I've turned the heel and am working down the gusset. I've said this before but I'll say it again. I love Socks That Rock! When I start a project with it and am knitting, I'm happy. Just plain happy! I love the way the yarn feels in my hands, the way it feels when I'm knitting with it and the beautiful colors it comes in. I'm a little backed up on my shipments due to other projects but I know I'll find the time somewhere. I just got this in the mail last week.

Gorgeous colorway with a wonderful Cat Bordhi pattern. Does it get any better? I think not.

In spinning news, I've finished my beautiful SeaWool Fiber that was a gift from Cupcake. I love her motto of knitting (or spinning) the nicest stuff you can afford. This is definitely some nice stuff! It's from Creatively Dyed Yarn and is 70% Wool, 30% Seacell. The colorway is Key West.

I started spinning this back in February. It's taken me seven months to spin this. I am a very slow spinner and 8 ozs is a lot to me. My singles filled up to bobbins and were pretty skinny. This is navajo-plyed. I wasn't sure if I wanted to have a 2-ply or 3-ply but after a little sampling and swatching decided on the stronger colors with the 3-ply. Plus, navajo plying is really fun. It's just a big crochet chain and has a rythym that I love. There is a cool video from Sarah Anderson on Navajo plying that I like, although it's not exactly how I do it.

I'm really excited about swatching a little with this to see what kind of fabric it wants to be. I'm thinking about trying a small top-down cropped sweater to wear over some of my dresses.

And lastly, for Son #2's birthday, the Three Little Pigs. His preschool teacher does a puppet show with that story and she has her own knitted pigs that she uses. Son #2 loves them so for his 4th birthday I gave him his own.

My new hobby of geocaching has cut into my knitting time quite a bit, but it's so fun I can't stop. My boys and I have gone every day this past week!