Diversions

I've re-discovered an old love.

I knew how to knit as a child but found it too time-consuming so took up more 'instant-gratification techniques like needle-point and crochet instead.
It was Kim who got me hooked on knitting as an adult when we first got together. He was admiring a hand-knit sweater in the window of a yarn shop when he noticed a sign offering classes. Looking at me and seeing the potential for an unlimited source of beautiful chunky sweaters, he had me in there & signed up for the next class in seconds flat.
Fortunately I didn't mind and did turn out a few nice sweaters for him (that he still wears more than 15 years later) before kids & life turned me into a knitting committment-phobe. Since Shea was born I haven't knit anything more substantial than scarves, dishcloths and placemats, even though I've now knit enough dishcloths to be the equivalent of a wardrobe of sweaters. I guess it's understandable since my main knitting time is in the car (not when I'm driving) on long family drives, so working on a sweater might be a bit unwieldly.

For the past couple of years I've had my big-project excitement vicariously, reading Yarn Harlot's blog, (click here to check it out) so I guess it's inevitable that I'd catch the sock-knitting bug.
I polled my family to find out if anyone would wear hand-knit socks and got two surprisingly enthusiastic "yes's" and one very predictable "no way" (guess who).

The last time I had a few minutes to kill in Steveston I found some fabulous sock yarn - Trekking - that creates wonderful stripey patterns. Now who do we know who would wear such wild-coloured socks?
Here's my first ever sock, a ski sock for our eccentric Shea.

It's so gratifying to have someone truly love what you make for them (and that I can still pick his fave colours). The only way I could convince Shea to finally take off his one new sock was to tell him that if he wanted the second one to be the same size he'd have to hand it over.

I was planning to have a lot of knitting time on our trip to Whistler last weekend so, even though I still had most of Shea's second sock to work on I optimistically bought some yarn to make a pair for Kim.
Good thing too, because we were 1/2 way to Whistler when I needed the next page of the pattern and found that I had brought a page from a completely different sock pattern. I'd printed out a few to choose from, from the internet so they were all on loose pages. GRRRRR
I came home with 3 socks knit up to the heel-turning stage. And some beautiful hand-dyed sock yarn I bought at the Whistler farmers market. (Someone's going to get a nice hand-made Christmas present.)

Here's a little Whistler friend who loves Chili rice chips.

We brought our bikes & Kim & I had planned to do a lot of cycling but the weather was scorching, far too hot for riding much. It was perfect weather, though, for wandering through air-conditioned art galleries and sitting in air-conditioned ski shops knitting ski socks while Kim & Shea looked at skis & boots and dreamed of nice cool snow.