Socks and stoles, oh my

I don't know how some people churn out socks - here a pair there a pair everywhere a pair pair. Not so on this farm!

These socks seem like they have taken me a decade to finish... (actually it's just under 4 months.)

They were mostly made during my relatively short train commute each afternoon. I enjoyed making them. And I see the merits of something small for train knitting. But I'm still not a sock knitter by any stretch of the imagination!

Of course they are the Pomatomus Socks by Cookie A from the Summer 2006 Knitty made in Sundara's sock yarn in "Mixed Berry" colourway for my mum. (Mum was given a number of sock patterns to choose from for Mother's Day and lucky for me, she chose the one I was itching to try!)

But that's not all the finishing going on round here!

Yes, that is me, binding off my Baltic Sea Stole! Fiver found the event so momentous, he grabbed a camera and started shooting!

I plan to give it a fairly agressive blocking, so I wanted a good, flexible bind off and found the 'Decrease Bind Off' described here to be just the ticket. I also think I'm a little bit clever for running a lifeline through the very last row before binding off - this allowed me to bind off in part, then test for flexibility. The first attempt was a bit too tight - but it was a breeze to just unzip the boundoff stitches and replace the live stitches on the needle from the lifeline. Now that I've bound off satisfactorily, the lifeline will stay in place for blocking, Harlot-style. (I use mercerised cotton for lifelines and blocking - seems extravagant but I got a box full of the stuff thrown in with some knitting needles at a market stall last year.)

Although I feel a sort of freedom, having completed the stole, I admit to feeling a little twinge of sadness when I'd completed the last lace pattern row, then another twinge as I completed the last plain row before the border... stay tuned for some post-block modelled shots to come later this month!