I knitted a pair of socks on holiday. They are not tricksy or fancy. In fact, they are not even particularly good-looking. But they fulfilled their purpose: they were the perfect therapeutic knit.
Alchemilla Mollis: Lady’s Mantle
I started work in earnest in the car as we drove to the West Coast. Yes, that’s right, FL did the driving. I needed something to distance myself from the experience. I am a natural kerb-hugger, but FL likes to take what you might call the “racing position” on the road. If he thinks there is nothing coming the other way, this can mean he drives up the middle of the road, straddling the cats’ eyes. This terrifies me.
Echinops: Sea Holly
So I focussed on my knitting for mile after mile and tried not to listen as the car screamed away in third gear at 50 mph. It’s not that he’s a bad driver, he just has his “own way of doing things”. It’s a style of driving best-suited to country lanes and tractors. And you wonder why we holiday off the beaten track?
Pot-plant we call “Mother of Millions”. Not a herbal remedy, it is there for artistic reasons! ;)
And then there was a week of recovery, when FL slept a lot and I curled up in the sun porch like a lazy cat with my sock. It became a knitterly meditation. Row after row until it was done. And then another. I paced myself to finish the second foot in the car on the way home.
Stats:
Pattern: Dotty by Irishgirlieknits, available on Ravelry here.
Yarn: Fyberspates Bamboo (20%) / Merino (80%)
I knitted the same pattern last August, when we holidayed in the same area. I know that the dotty eyelets would show up better in a plainer yarn, but I wanted to use this bamboo mix from the stash to make a summery sock, and this was the pattern that came to mind.
You probably can’t tell, but the dots are spaced further apart as you work your way down the leg and foot. This has the effect of giving me forward momentum, knitting faster as I go, to complete just one more row of dots before I put my needles down.
So now we are back home, safe and sound and thoroughly rested.
And I have a new pair of socks. :D
