Knitting on the Road

 

We've been in Denver attending the 2012 GALA Festival this week. We sang, we danced, and we've listened to a lot of great choral music. But I've also managed to get a bit of knitting and yarn shopping in.

Before leaving Austin, I cast on for a pair of Gentlemen's Socks for Evening Wear from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. It feels like it's been forever since I've knitted socks. I'm using some wine-red Knit Picks Essential that I picked up at a yarn swap a few months back. Not exactly my color, and not exactly my style. These are awfully lacey for most gentlemen I know, but I suppose they were just the thing for Victorian dandies out on the town. One could make the case that, as laces go, this window-pane pattern is more masculine than some. I'll make them, but I don't know if I'll make them work.

The pattern is written for three needles, and although I usually use magic loop for socks, I'm toeing the line here. Past experience with patterns from this book taught me to do what I'm told. It's easier, and Ms. Bush hasn't steered me wrong yet. I have had some near disasters with 36 stitches crammed onto a 6-inch needle, though.

This morning, we took a break from the music and went with some friends up to Boulder for a few hours. We strolled around some shops and I just happened to stumble into Gypsy Wools. All the yarn there is hand painted or hand dyed by the owner, and the colors were amazing. There many examples of yarns you don't always find, and I picked up two hanks of sock yarn in both a dark gray and a steel blue bordering on turquoise made out of superwash Blue Faced Leicester. It's a nice little shop with friendly staff and an amazing array of colors. Also, they have lots of tops top and roving for spinners. (Did I use those terms correctly?)

We head back to Texas, and the heat, tomorrow.