Interlude

 

I’m on the second sock of a pair of denim blue twin ribbed socks for my husband. I’m probably a week from finishing; my knitting time is a smaller portion of the day lately, as I have been reading more and taking delightful urban hikes and enjoying the outdoors. Summer never really settles in on Puget Sound until mid-July or so, but I suppose my impetus is cued by the calendar more than the weather. I enjoy photographing local architecture and just whatever I see that engages my interest at the time. I read mostly Puritan theology.

I began the socks in progress with the Oriel pattern, a 12-stitch, 28-row pattern in Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Knitted Socks. I had one leg nearly done, when I noticed an error in a row that upset the pattern for the next inch above it. I decided that I don’t enjoy knitting glued to the chart. I prefer to be able to carry on a conversation or listen to something meaningful, like a sermon, and so I frogged the leg and began over in the twin rib: R1: K3, P3; R2: K1, P1. My husband wears boots and has no preference whatever. I was simply motivated by challenge, and then decided I was more motivated by the prospect of actually completing the socks, my twelfth pair, I think, this year.  I find that for me, knitting must parallel the rest of life, and who needs more complexity?  I prefer to enjoy beauty in the simple means of utility.

My husband and I have been enjoying games of backyard croquet in the evenings when he comes home from work. Sometimes our games are washed out by the June rains; at such times, a few rounds are added to a sock, or a few pages get read before dinner, and conversation progresses.

My stash is at the point where I think I have three free pairs of socks in the bag. Now to coordinate the multicolors and solids into some possibilities…