03 | December | 2013 | First Light Handcrafts

One day in August, I received a very flattering email from one of my knitting idols. The wonderfully clever Kate Atherley emailed to tell me she and Kim of indigodragonfly were in cahoots on a pattern collection, and might I be interested in knitting a sample for them? Gee, let me see, one of my favourite designers paired up with one of my favourite indie dyers…how could I possibly resist?

The collection included a hat, a shawl, fingerless mitts and lacy socks, all interesting, but still easy to knit. Kate asked if I might be up for the socks. I picked up the yarn from Kim at her annual Fibre Fling that weekend (Merino Nylon Sock in a heavenly orange called “Safety Pin or Safety Pint: Discuss”) and cast on before the weekend was out.

The one catch? The whole project was sooper seekrit so my morning Starbucks ritual of tweeting my WIPs was out. No progress pics posted to Rav…nada.

As a result, pics like this one taken at 30,000 feet got tweeted:

Flying the friendly skies…in seekrit!

As with all of Kate’s patterns, it was easy to follow and I encountered no issues. Once they were completed, I was in love!

Completed Hofners!

Awesome colour…adorable heart-shaped lace pattern down the outside of each sock. People stopped me when I knit it public and asked to see them. It pained me to turn them over to Kate when I was done. I am seriously considering another pair in a skein of the same base I have in a special edition, charity colourway called “Canoe Up To The Beer Store”.

The rest of the Rock ‘n Roll Collection is great as well. I have at least one other item planned from that collection. So many things to knit…so little time.

Pattern: Hofner Socks by Kate Atherley

Yarn: indigodragonfly Merino Nylon Sock in “Safety Pin or Safety Pint: Discuss”

Who Was It Made For? Sample for Kate

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? None – that would defeat the purpose of a sample knit.

Did I Learn Anything New? No

Anything Else? Not that I recall.

Would I Make Another?: Definitely…finding the time is another story.

For the past few months, I have been valiantly chugging away at two pairs of fingering weight socks, one for my Mom and one for my Dad. It all started when I was at home in Newfoundland this summer. Mom decided she liked the pair of Hermione’s Everyday Socks I was working on, and because she had caught me at exactly the right point in the process and I was not all that enamoured with them, I offered to finish them to fit her. Once she had them, she told me she loved them and would really love another pair to go with her brown jeans. My parents have never asked me to knit them anything, ever, so I thought that was the least I could do.

Now, there are two things you should know about this. My mother has a size 10.5 foot – I have a size 7 foot. So as you can imagine these socks require an awful lot more stitches than I usually have to knit to finish a pair of socks.

The bigger issue: I loathe brown. With the fiery passion of a thousand suns. (That’s a slight exaggeration – indigodragonfly makes a Captain Tightpants colourway that I like, and I don’t mind it in variegated colourways like the ones in my Stillwater scarf…but that’s about it). So it should be telling of how much I love my Mom when I tell you that I knit a pair of size 10.5 brown socks for her.

It gets better. I cannot knit my mother two pairs of socks, and not knit any for my father. That just won’t do at all. This necessity for equality is come by honestly. When my brother and I were children, Mom kept a running account of what she spent on each of us at Christmas to make sure the numbers were even. So I ask Dad what colours he would want, since of course I need to knit him two pairs as well. His answer? Dark blue and….brown. Normally, being the dutiful daughter, I would have asked him which socks he wanted first; I skipped that step and cast on the Sweet Fiber Seastorm ones. Because one more brown pair of socks might have killed me. He’ll get the brown ones in the spring. After which I will be declaring a moratorium on brown knitting for a minimum of six months.

I am at the gusset decreases of the second Seastorm sock. It’s not brown but it’s still not exactly colourful. Last night, out of pure desperation, I cast on a Reunion Cowl. In indigodragonfly MCN Lace. In the most stunning red in the world, made even better by being named after one of my favourite TV characters…Inara from Firefly.