More December

It's been an interesting month for socks. After the test-knit, then on to the cable socks I've been working on.

This is STR Mediumweight in Wonderful Goodness. This is a dye technique that I've never seen Tina of Blue Moon use before -



I like the speckle - and I've nothing but good things to say about Blue Moon yarn. This sock is full of cables, and Blue Moon works well for cabling without a needle. The stitches stay where they're supposed to be, are easy to pick up and have excellent stitch definition.



The skein. I'm hoping Tina does more of these.

December knitting

Not a bad month for knitting, but not even close to a good month for blogging.

Here's the progress on this month's sock yarn:



So far, a very nice yarn. It's smooth, well-plied, knits into a firm fabric and has no slubs or loosely plied spots - other than that cut in the skein. I've knit past that, and it seems to be an aberration, so I'll not criticize the yarn for that. It could have been a cut when someone opened a box of yarn. (It could even have been me, but I don't think so.)

I have been busy with some other knitting - in particular, this test-knit for a new pattern for Hunter Hammersen. She calls it Truckle Socks and it's a simple, intriguing knit. There is a scallop pattern on one side of the front, one side of the back. The back set of scallops continues onto the heel flap, while the front continues down the instep. What I really liked about this pattern was the gusset decrease.



The gusset decreases on either side of the scallop pattern. For one side this is the usual position, but the other side creates an interesting pattern across the front of the sock.

I'm enjoying this. Hunter posted on Ravelry that she expects to have the final pattern available in the new year.

December Sock Yarn Review

December's sock yarn is one I got through a Ravelry swap - Black Bunny Fibers. The Yarn Harlot had mentioned it on her blog and when I saw it come up in a destash, figured this couldn't hurt.



I really like these colours - intense blue, black and green. The yarn is fine, with a very nice sheen, but not too tightly twisted.

My only complaint: when I was winding it, I discovered a cut in the yarn.



One big ball. One small ball. Cut through. I doubt this came from Black Bunny this way, since it would have made skeining a right royal pain in the you-know-where, so I suspect it's an accident of some kind.

I'm going to overlook this as a defect.