Year of Projects 4: Gothic Spire 01

SOCKTOPUS :  Farmer McGregor • Om Shanti

KNIT. SOCK. LOVE. : BFF • Clandestine • Cusp • German Stockings • Gothic Spire • Hedera • In and Out • Lissajous • Marilinda • Mona • Monkey • Pointelle • Rhombus • Sake • Stalagmite • Stricken • Thelonious • Twisted Flower • Wedge

And now for something completely different; I've made a start on Gothic Spire socks. Just looking at the charts made my  heart leap - a symbol I'd never seen before! Turns out working the new-to-me stitch involves shifting stitches to a cable needle, wrapping them a few times and then knitting the wrapped stitches. As you can imagine, it really slows you down. On the first repeat I used my fifth DPN for a cable needle but that was way too cumbersome. Gavin took an old broken rosewood DPN and made me a much smaller cable needle to shorten the distance around which I have to wrap the yarn. It really makes a tremendous difference.

The yarn is from Studio June Yarns - it's Super Cash Sock in a TexGal Light colourway. It's a gorgeous royal blue and soooo very soft. The colour in the first photo is more accurate than the second, I'd say. I'm going to have to be careful about yarn usage. A number of Ravelers warn that with all these wrapped stitches the pattern is a yarn hog. The recommendation from the designer is 370-555 yards. I've got 430 yards to work with, so wish me luck!

There are four chart repeats to be worked on the leg. I've completed two and have started the third. But there's no hurry as I'm enjoying this pattern tremendously and really loving the way it looks. Although, I'm starting to think that this Year of Projects is really going to be an entire year of knitting in the back loops. It's a Cookie A. thing, I think.

Monday is a civic holiday here - Lord Simcoe day or some such. Aren't long weekends lovely? We've spent the first couple of days at Lake Erie and now it's time to do chores. Laundry awaits!