Catching Up

From the absence of posts you might think that I haven't been knitting, but that's not true. I just haven't been blogging. But maybe I'd better get started on a few catch up posts.

The June shipment of Cookie A Sock Club yarn arrived yesterday, so the April club patterns, yarn and cookies are a good place to start.

I'm not much of a baker honestly. Very seldom do my baking attempts turn out as I expect. So I wasn't entirely sure that I'd participate much in the baking part of the Cookie A sock club. Six times a year, club members receive a skein of yarn in the mail, and then a Ravelry download that includes two cookie recipes and two sock patterns. Members are encouraged to post FO photos of cookies, club pattern socks, or FOs using the club yarn. Each post made before the next club release qualifies as an entry for prizes.

My first FO for April was a tray of Cranberry Walnut Granola bars - and oh my goodness, they turned out perfectly! There are pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds, rolled oats, peanut butter, walnuts and craisins in there. Fortunately there's a Bulk Barn just up the street so that I could buy small amounts of the necessary ingredients! I've already made these again, and Gavin has been asking about when I'm planning the next batch.

Spumoni Cookies were my second FO - think basic chocolate chip toll house cookies with added cherries and pistachios. They were okay, but the cherries and pistachios really didn't do much for the cookie, imho.

The Club yarn is a high twist merino similar to the Sokkuso base (maybe it IS the Sokkuso base?). It was dyed "Manzanillo" green by Mrs Crosby in Chicago - not really my colour as there's more yellow in this green than I'm comfortable with. The twist certainly gives it great stitch definition, but I'm still not comfortable with sock yarn that has no nylon content. With the club yarn I knit one of the two Club patterns - Agave Socks. In the pattern as written the instep motif tapers to a "V" on the top of the foot, however alternate instep instructions were provided to continue the pattern to the toe. That's the route I went. The pattern involves a lot of twisted stitches, but it knits up surprisingly fast and was quite intuitive. Easy enough to knit on my commute. One thing though - it eats yarn. I barely squeaked out this pair from the 433 yards of yarn in the skein.

I knit the second club pattern - Xeriscape Socks - from Twisted by Studio June in a colourway called "Coffee and Cream". Seems to me the club patterns are like those old 45rpm records we used to buy - an "A" side and a "B" side. In the case of the patterns, seems like there's one fancy pattern and one vanilla pattern. Xeriscape Socks are super simple - not much more than a basketweave pattern of knits and purls. It's a nice enough sock, but it's not a pattern I would have purchased. Let's put those on the gift pile.

The June patterns and recipes packet won't be released for another week or so - that should give me enough time to catch up on some other socks on needles. Hopefully my next blog is just a few days away instead of weeks!