sox talk...

I can’t believe I haven’t talked about knitting socks all year, not since last Christmas! To be honest, I did sort of think I probably have worn out the topic, but you never know. Here I am feeling I have something more to say on the subject.
The other morning, we had a snow storm and the power went out. I was already in my workroom, preparing to knit and thought, oh, I don’t want to waste the impulse – it was bright enough in the room that I didn’t need power for the lights but to make something that didn’t require the electric for patterning? I grabbed an already-coned-up skein of sock yarn in an aqua and pinks colourway and began to knit. It just happened to be a new-to-me one, Lana Grossa Meilenweit – I placed a mail order last February when there were some things on sale at loveknitting.com – I had spotted this one called ‘stretch Malibu’, thinking it was a great deal at $10.89 for a 100g ball, never got round to it till now. It looked a little finer than my usual Regia sock yarn. Ignoring that thought, I threaded up and began knitting (using my regular double bed sock pattern – see ‘freebies’ at www.knitwords.com – last December I updated that with all my little extra tips along with men’s and ladies sizes and offered it as a pdf – still available, email me at knitwords@shaw.ca).
The power came back on and I never even noticed, just finished off the pair, going for a ladies 8.5 size. I was on a roll and took the next most appealing one, Regia 4 fadig color in reds with a bit of white, orange and yellow call ‘Rio’. Used the same exact size and when I compared the two, the Malibu stretch turned out a full size smaller that the Regia pair. Hum-m-m, interesting. I read the label and the Malibu is 45% wool, 35% cotton, 13% polymid, 7% Elite (PBT) – who knows what that might be? It says, ‘machine washable, non-felting, hard wearing’ (I like that!). And the yardage (sounds better than meterage) is 460 m to 100g! The other sock yarns, merino or superwash wool/nylon are 420 m to 100g.   

I got this great pair of Fluevog boots that I love – they have great grips on the bottom and I wanted them to be my winter boots this year but they are a bit snug with my regular merino wool socks and skinny jeans leave my ankles kind of bare and cold – not to mention matching the colour! using the blue/grey colourway, knit up one size smaller than my regular 7.5, went back to a longer 60-row ribbed cuff to take care of the ankle issue – they are just that bit thinner and perfect! ;-)
P.S. if you think it's hard to take a selfie, try photo-ing your own feet!