And so I present to you my finished socks, in Sundara Yarn’s “Black Lagoon” colorway. (Which, yes, is hard to photograph correctly . . . yadda yadda, you’ve heard it before.)

What a nice yarn to knit with, though.Soft, smooth, and with a really great feel as it glided past my needles. A lot like Koigu, in fact. And, oh, the color was so pretty! Although, interestingly, the one sock is just a little “brighter,” a little more vivid than its mate. I’m not sure why. It’s not a difference I noticed at all in the skeins, but it’s ever so faintly noticeable in the socks, that one is a little subtler, the other a little more vibrant. Not that I care. I love them anyway.

The pattern is my own. I started with a Turkish cast-on for the toe. This is definitely my new favorite toe. Then, I used a slight texture pattern (the same from my Berocco suede bag, in fact). The heel is Lucy Neatby’s Garter Stitch Short Row heel, which was a pleasure to knit (although so much less “stretchy” than a stockinette short-row heel, I had to knit good inch further than usual before working the heel).

The only problem? As I worked on my tight-gauge-on-tiny-needles Celtic Dreams, my gauge for the socks tightened as I passed the heels. And also, the pattern stitch is not particularly elastic . . . together, that means these are actually kind of difficult to get ON. Once they’re on my feet, they fit wonderfully and are comfortable, but getting them on in the first place? Kind of tricky. If I had to do it over again, I would increase the number of stitches when I got past the heel–the point where the entire circumference was worked in the pattern stitch, rather than just half as on the foot. Meanwhile . . . I’ll just be really careful when I put them on (grin).

Meanwhile, another day, another knit-along. I’ve joined the Amazing Lace knit-along. How could I resist? My teammate for this challenge will be, of course, my Peacock Feathers Stole. We still have a long way to go together, but we’re getting along pretty well, and I think we’ll work well together. Who can object to a little extra lace incentive??

Hey, do you hear that? It’s actually raining outside. We haven’t gotten a real rainstorm in weeks, and need it terribly. Hopefully my car’s getting a good rinse, too, to get rid of the green crud that’s been coming off the trees the last couple weeks.

I’m worried about our vacation, though–the weather forecast for Martha’s Vineyard next week?

Now, this is worrying for for two reasons.

One, well, who wants this much rain on their vacation?

But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that vacations with your dog with a lot of rain end up like this, on the right.

We took this picture up at Gay Head (Aquinnah) cliffs . . .the parking area is as close as we got. It was raining just too darn hard when we got up there–the “furthest” point on the island–to get out of the car.

Our first vacation with Chappy, when he was about 8 months old, it rained. And rained. And rained. We spent a LOT of time either in the car or in our hotel room. And since he was so young and unsure about what was going on (”Vacation? What’s a vacation?”) he barked at every noise–people outside the room, motorcycles riding by. Everything. He got sick in the car –and when he wasn’t sick, he was drooling. He decided he was too nervous to eat, and turned up his nose at the Spot’s Stew I brought for him. Basically, he ate pieces of bagels from Mom’s breakfast, which she carried in her pocket for him.

And meantime, it was wet. This is bad enough when travelling with humans, but at least humans are welcome in all the stores and restaurants. With a dog, you can’t go into a restaurant at all. There are many stores that won’t allow him in (although many that will, too). But in good weather, that’s no problem. I wait on the sidewalk with Chappy while Mom goes into get food, or whatever. But in bad weather, standing on the sidewalk just isn’t appealing. Nor is is easy to get your dog to go to the bathroom when it’s raining all the time–which means we both get wet. That trip, we actually tried to get an early ferry off the island–something completely unheard of.

So . . . this weather forecast? It’s striking fear into my heart. In the greater scheme of things, weather on a vacation isn’t that important–not compared to other people’s health and other serious, life issues . . . but if you could maybe put a good word in with the Weather Gods for us, for decent weather on Martha’s Vineyard next week . . . It doesn’t have to be stunningly beautiful. It doesn’t even have to be warm–I’m a knitter. I have warm clothes. But . . . dry. Or even mostly dry. Sure would help a lot.

Hmm, I wonder if the fireplace in the room really works?

• Tags: Chappy, Finished Knitting, General, Knitting/Spinning, Martha's Vineyard • Permalink:Black Lagoon //