Sargasso Sea Sock Kit and More

"In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where two powerful currents come together like partners joining hands to dance and whirl round and around, there is a place shrouded in mystery. It is a sea within a sea. This place of calm, clear water and floating seaweed islands has been said to becalm ships forever and to harbor mermaids. It is the Sargasso Sea." My friend,Judy of Ball and Skein aptly describes the Sargasso Sea which is the theme of our sock kit.

After much revision and test knitting by Sarah, the Sargasso Sea Sock pattern kit is now available.The kit includes the cutest sea shell stitch marker.

Now I'm free to finish up the wing portion of Swan Lake Stole (MS3) and other WIP's.

I'm happy to report that I've spun up a considerable amount of rambouillet and silk at RI Handspun's Spin In........................

Pulled in all directions.........

What a dreary day today is. TS Eliot in The Waste Land said that April is the cruelest month; I vote that March fills that bill as well.I shouldn't be totally negative what with daylight saving time enacted earlier this year.

My antidote has been finishing the Sargasso Sea pattern and socks. Here you can see the texture of the sock while worn.

This pic shows the sock without the crocheted edging...suitable for a more practical look.

I can now get back to Swan Lake aka MS3. I needed to do some mindless knitting so yesterday afternoon I started a Norwegian beret in cream and dark gray Suri Merino ( alpaca and merino blend) by Plymouth that I bought at RI Handspun. I'm already heading down the home stretch with the decreases. The impetus for knitting this hat is all due to Carol M :). She made two of them. She felted the hat a bit and it looks wonderful.

Chinese Version of Swan Lake

This is an absolutely stunning mix of ballet and acrobatics.

I'm off to work on my Swan Lake Mystery Stole wing in celebration!!

Sargasso Sea Sock I is Finished

I've finished sock one and almost half of the second sock. It makes me think of Neruda's poem:

"Ode to My Socks" by Pablo Neruda (translated by Robert Bly)

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder's hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.