Blue Period

The Panopticon festival of blue yarn continues with the casting on of a sock, shown below.



The colorway–"Violet" from Lorna's Laces–is so intense that it's like a kiss on the eyes.



I'm knitting it into Primavera, which is available free from this blog. When I encountered the pattern unexpectedly on Ravelry I felt like Romeo bumping into Juliet at the Capulet ball. Or Dick Cheney finding a new flavor of Häagen-Dazs in the freezer section. I must and shall have you, I thought.

I would like to thank the designer, Natalja, for providing that elusive treasure: a handsome, unfussy sock that includes not a single yarn-over. When you have hairy legs, socks with little holes in them do not make for a pretty picture.

Reader Q & A

TB asks, "What yarn did you use for the socks?" It's Schaefer Yarn Company's Heather in the colorway Margo Jones. The whole time I was knitting with it, I thought of it as brown. When I finished them, I added them to my list in the sidebar as "Brown Socks." TB (and several others) called the yarn orange after seeing the pictures. I just took another look. Yup, it's orange. So much for my reputation as an intensely visual person.

I'm still going to leave the title "Brown Socks" in the sidebar, but from this point it should be taken not as an indication of color but as a tribute to James Brown, the Godfather of Soul.

Knitography is curious about the source of the phrenology bust I used as a hat stand in this post. I've seen them on sale for a lot of money in Chicago boutiques–those places in Lincoln Park and Wicker Park that buy $3 figurines in Chinatown, hot-glue them to wooden bases and mark them up to $75–but I got mine for cheap on eBay. I don't recall the seller's ID, but s/he had bunches for sale. After it arrived, I spent some time feeling my own skull and discovered I have an alarming crater in the "moral and religious sentiments" region and an interesting bump corresponding to "extermination."

The photo styling questions continued with SamD, who wants to know what was holding up the Noro Scarf. It's a porcelain pedestal dish I picked up at the local charity shop for a buck. I throw my wallet and keys into it every night, which helps me pretend I've become an organized person.

Aidan asks if I'd like to put my cute little niece in a pita pocket and eat her up. No, I would not. She's been eating a lot of Cheerios and rice cereal, and I don't need the extra carbs. Also, I'm fairly certain that in New England it's customary to serve fresh baby on a clam roll.

An anonymous reader, whom I suspect to be Oscar nominee Daniel Day-Lewis, asked about getting the kitty valentine cartoon on a t-shirt - I'll see what I can do, Daniel, and thank you for asking. (By the way, if you're ever in Chicago and want to cheat on your lovely wife, the key is under the mat.)

Another anonymous reader, whom I suspect to be Oscar nominee Daniel Day-Lewis wearing a different hat, asks about the status of the snowman hat pattern. I admit, I have been remiss. The trouble is, I made it up as I went along and so have no notes about it, so recreating it means knitting it over again, which is taking some time. (By the way, Daniel, if you do decide to drop by there's a free t-shirt in it for you.)

Bronchitkat asked whether the "Denim" Fisherman Yarn from Lorna's Laces that I'm using in my sweater is available in the UK. I think you're in luck, dear–go to the Lorna's Laces Web site and do a search in the "Where to Buy" section. Looks like there are four dealers: London, Bristol, Pembrokeshire, and Somerset. Please buy some. Our economy needs all the help it can get.