3 posts tagged “frosch”

Shortly into my Lakes holiday I finished the Absinthe Socks in Wollmeise Frosch.  I am incredibly pleased with these socks.  The pattern was a huge amount of fun, the yarn matched it perfectly! and they look and feel great, a perfect marriage of socks.  My only slight complaint is that the cables which sit on the top of the foot where the ankle and foot meet are tight and stretch a little too much.  Ii didn't irritate me while I wore them yesterday and I did walk a couple of miles out of town to visit a ruined Roman Fort so they were put through a proper test run.

Absinthe Socks

I don't normally "save" special yarn for a perfect pattern but because this was my last skein of Wollmeise I did this time and I am glad that I did.  

I have finally finished the Austrian Socks.  These are some amazing heavily cabled socks from Favourite Socks which my sister said she really like when she flicked through the book.  I have been working on them for her birthday but they have taken me a very long time.  I think that it is because they have such a complex pattern that I needed to take the book with me everywhere or knit them at home and they isn't the most convenient type of knitting.  There was also an embarrassing ripping back incident when I thought that I had memorised the pattern and was very very wrong about that.

Austrian Socks 1

This will tick off part of my challenge to knit every sock in Favourite Socks no. 4 and to give my sister 3 pairs of knitted socks no 69 from 101 things.  I really hope she likes them as I chose a delicate pink and green yarn that I thought she would like.

The yarn is Easyknitter's bfl in the Blossom colourway I think and as always was a dream to knit with.

Austrian Socks 2

I ought to mention that I have now finished 1 of the Absinthe Socks in Wollmeise Frosch and I love the fit and the yarn.  I can't wait to finish these and start wearing them.

Absinthe Socks 1

I wrote a exhuberant and lyrical post last weekend all about the joys of spring to celebrate the Vernal Equinox and Vox ate it - boo! So this is round two with some added extras after J and I completed another day of serious gardening to prepare for the growing season.

The Spring Equinox came calling in several ways for me this year.

Firstly I have been growing seedlings for the garden - here are my coriander seeds.

Coriander Seedlings

Now every year there is always one batch of seeds I fear won't make it and this year it was the aubergines.  I knew that they took 10-14 days to germinate so it shouldn't have been a surprise that at day 11 I had no seedlings.  I had 3 more days to wait.  However I started to assume for various reasons that this meant the seeds had failed (largely due to my own fears about using the *wrong sort of compost*).  My first aubergine shoots arrived on the Equinox and I felt stupidly relieved.  By day 14 of the cycle it looked like I had 10 aubergine plants.  So far so good.

Aubergine seedling

The gardening theme continued and for the first time (ever I think) J and I took flowers from the garden - which we were pruning back anyway and put them in vases inside the house.  I don't know why we haven't done this before.  I like cut flowers but feel that they are not very ethical or sustainable and so have viewed them as a rare and guilty pleasure.  This might just be a way around it.  I would be tied to the seasonality of the flowers I want to buy but I like seasonality in my fruit and veg (It is nice being able to look forward to stawberries and raspberries and enjoy them for a short time but at a time when the flavour is unparalleled) so it seems to follow I could looked forward to seasonality in my flowers.  I already love it when the daffodils come out and this time was also able to remember how much I love the smell of hyacinths.

Lastly I cast on (and have even finished one whole sock of a pair) the Absinthe pattern from the Spring Knitty.  This seasons Knitty has been my favourite for a long time.  Some great socks and two shawls I would love to knit.  These socks caught my eye because the bright green was so perfectly seasonal and because I too love Art Nouveau design.  I have had a skein of Wollmeise in Frosch in my stash for a very long time.  I was bought for me before Wollmeise got so popular that it became a scrum trying to get hold of her yarns.  I had been saving it for a special pattern as I doubt I will be able to get any more for some time (I do like Wollmeise and it is exceptionally well dyed with an interesting and unusual base.  But I just can't be bothered with the contest for getting hold of it and the nastiness which can come with that - I am going to happily wait until updates are less crazy and if they never get less crazy I will enjoy all the other great yarns which are just as good).  Anyway.  This was clearly the perfect pattern for Frosch.  The semi-solid aspect of the colourway wasn't going to swamp the pattern and the green colour (which some have called Chartreuse) looked really good as an Absinthe. 

Absinthe Socks

Now I have knitted a fair amount of this up I am enjoying it incredibly.  The colour palette is sophisticated and subtle and the base is still unusual and interesting.  It is a great shame that this is my last skein but I am determined to enjoy every single inch of it and knit up all my leftovers.