Luna de Miel

I mentioned earlier that my husband and I are about to embark on a 3½-week honeymoon! Yay! (They always say not to say things like this on the internet, but since we have a housesitter and two protective guardcats, I'll take the risk.)

On our trip we will be visiting California, Oregon, Nevada and Hawai'i. The flight to LAX alone takes 17 hours! Not to mention hours upon hours on the road as we drive along the West Coast. This naturally begs the question: what to knit?!

After much contemplation, I settled on the Carnaby Street Pullover by Melissa Wehrle (at left). The pattern was published in the Fall 2009 issue of Knitscene and it is also available for purchase on the Interweave Knits website. My poison of choice is Novita Florica (100% wool) in 080, which is a muted purple/mauve shade.

To be fair, I am not entirely convinced that the neckline will work with my... erm, ample bust, but I lovelovelove the waffle-like pattern and the off-center buttons. I'm making the 36½" size even though it's supposed to be worn with negative ease - my gauge is likely to be tighter than required and the neckline may sit better that way.

One of the deciding factors was that even though this is knitted in Sport weight yarn, the needles are large enough for me to use my Denise set (the smallest of which are 3.75 mm). I did not want to risk losing bamboo or metal needles to fickle airport security staff.

My secondary travel project is a pair of Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts (at right). I may not have disclosed this before, but I suck at colourwork. I always pull the travelling yarn too tight and my gauge goes all over the place. Therefore I'm surprised to say that I have already finished one! (Not the one in the photo, I haven't gotten around to taking photos yet.) I'm using Rowan 4 Ply Soft (100% wool; discontinued) in 397 Teak for the main colour and Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Silk Solid (52% bamboo, 43% superwash merino wool, 5% combed silk) in 3204 Natural Ecru for the contrasting colour. The Crystal Palace Panda was leftovers from my wedding garter, so it seemed appropriate for a honeymoon project.

If everything goes to plan, these mitts will have a very special role to play soon. But I'll tell you more if/when it happens.

It is currently 12.30am and I'm biding time until we leave for the airport at 4.30am. My suitcase is nearly packed and I'm starting to feel jittery. Weirdly enough, the older I get, the less I enjoy flying. I used to love it. Now I get nervous. Luckily I have Tristan to hold my hand - plus as a hobby pilot, he knows to give me a heads-up if something really is going awry!

SSSocks

The human mind is a most curious thing. It may be perfectly happy doing certain things, but once these things become compulsory, it'll avoid them like the plague.

Take, for instance, knitting socks. In my queue, I have 20 sock projects that I would love to make. For most of them, I have the yarn ready and waiting. But since I am partaking in Sukkasato 2010 (Sock Harvest 2010), which is a drive to knit as many socks of possible between September 1 and October 31, I am naturally dreaming of sweaters, hats, even scarves. The mere thought of turning a heel makes me bored.

Not to mention the serious case of SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) I'm experiencing. You know, once you finish one sock, the pattern ceases to be exciting and interesting and you want to move on to bigger, better things. Some people give in to SSS and wear mis-matched socks. SSS also affects gloves, in which case knitters speak of "wearing it MJ style".

So, even though I reaaaalllly don't wanna, I have started a few sock projects for Sukkasato. Could you have guessed I am halfway through each one?

The sock on the left is what I was hoping would cure my sock boredom (and land me at least one pair in at Sukkasato). It is Konnichiwa by Judy Sumner, from her excellent book Knitted Socks East and West - another "Japanese-inspired" knitting book. The yarn is Novita 7 Veljestä Moniraita (75% wool / 25% nylon) in 842, a long since discontinued yarn that I've just been looking to get rid of, since it's only really good for socks and I don't love thick socks like this. The pattern is fun, but I think these socks are waiting to be owned by someone else.

The sock on my right foot, on the other hand, might just be my favourite sock ever. The pattern is Julia by Emily Johnson and the yarn is Araucania Ranco Solid (75% wool / 25% nylon) in 108 Teal. At five full pages, the pattern is a bit unnecessarily verbose, but the end product is lovely. And the yarn! Teal is a difficult shade (I learnt this the hard way by having it as one of my "wedding colours"), but the Ranco yarn got it just right. I could wear these socks all the time! The main issue here is that with Fingering weight yarn and a pattern with 50% twisted stitches, this is very, very slow going.

I don't know if this counts as a sock per se, but here it is anyway. It is one of those genius designs of an origami nature - you knit one piece, fold it a few times and BAM you have a slipper sock. The pattern used here is Mountain Form Slippers by Jun Miyamoto (direct link to pattern PDF). The yarn is Novita Jussi (75% wool / 25% nylon) in 828. Jussi is one of Novita's weird kind-of-seasonal yarns; it doesn't appear in their official collection, yet it is almost always available if you look in the right places. I used it here to get rid of some leftover yarn after I knitted a pair of socks for Tristan's grandmother.

Like I said, I really like the design, and the thick yarn is definitely called for here. The problem is that the sock came out much too big. The nature of the pattern is such that you cannot try it on before it's finished. The pattern is supposed to fit a US shoe size 6-7, however I wear a size 8 and knit very tight. Yet as you can see from the photo, it is much too big for my foot. I think I'll frog it partially and make it smaller, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

(The nail polish on my toenails is Mavala's "London", the most perfect red there is.)

Why is it that all of the socks I'm working on are blue?!