Socks, Squirrels & Straw Bucks

This summer break has been filed with lots of activities, and I haven't been hitting the knitting as much as I'd like. But I have made a bit of progress this week.

Most notably, I completed a few more Christmas Balls after a few weeks of drought. I finished up the chapter on animals with two patterns, both of which I decided to leave unbeaded. First we have The Squirrel with its over-the-top bushy tale. I kind of wanted to add a little acorn, but the seam would have messed with it and I decided to leave well enough alone. The designers said they got the idea for this motif from a knitted children's sweater they ran across. I figure when (not if) Kate decides to eat one of these ornaments, it will be this one depicting her backyard arch-nemesis.

Next was something called The Straw Buck. Apparently, little (or big!) goats made out of bundles of straw are a traditional Scandinavian Christmas decorating tradition. I'd never heard of this, but there are many examples to be found on the web. Now to me, "buck" would denote a deer of some sort, but Wikipedia says goat. And bock beer often has a goat on the label. And this little guy does seem to have a bit of a beard. The Wikipedia article mentions pranking neighbors by putting a julebukk in their yard. Some friends and I once did something similar with a deer made out of sticks and logs -- you know who you are! -- so maybe I've absorbed a Scandinavian Christmas tradition without knowing it.

And this week, I finished the first of the Kalajoki socks. Modeling shots will follow once the pair is finished, but I wanted to show the clever "anatomical toe." You know the standard toe in which you decrease every other round? To do an anatomical toe, you decrease evey other round on the big toe side, but decrease every round on the pinky toe side. Neat! Not necessary, but very easy to do -- and probably equally easy to screw up if you're not paying attention. We'll see.

Now we're off to celebrate our 8th anniversary (thanks, Canada!) with a fancy dinner.