My almost-done Noro socks

Wow. I can't believe it's been 4 days since I posted! Guess I've been busier than I thought. I haven't got much spinning done (when do I ever??), but at least I found time to nearly finish these Noro socks that've been on my needles since early this Summer. I'm knitting from both ends of the ball, so I'll have 'fraternal twin' socks, rather than the color-matched ones I don't much care for. After all, if I started with the same color for both socks, not all the colors would show and that would be sad! These socks will make me visible from at least a mile and a half away, don't you think?

In case anyone wonders, I just "plugged-in" the lovely-but-simple "Crosshatch Lace" design from one of Barbara Walker's Stitch Dictionary Treasure books. Book 2...I think. No, I'm not going to go look for you. Sorry - feeling grumpy and out-of-sorts today. Must be the grungy, rainy, cloudy, icky weather. I really like this stitch design - it is so easily memorized. As it's only a 6-stitch/8-row repeat it can be used for nearly any number of stitches needed for nearly anything. Thing is...it's best used in-the-round only, because there are no 'plain' rows/rounds between each 'design' round. That is, unless you're willing to turn your knitting hand around almost backwards in a purl-two-together-through-the-backloop in order to achieve the left-leaning decrease on the front. YUCK - I absolutely hate doing that stupid stitch! I will leap through hoops and avoid gorgeous stitch patterns just to avoid making that horrible, unnatural and rather painful movement.

I've been meaning to fiddle with the stitch pattern to see what it would look like with plain rounds/rows between each design round. Bet a million other knitters have done the same :-). It would be extremely easy to re-design the pattern to make it wider and taller, for larger items, such as sweaters and scarves, too. Problem is, most of those aren't knitted in the round!

I'll knit a few more rounds, then use a sewn bind-off for 2x2 ribbing to keep the edge super-stretchy, without it looking all stretched-out. I love, love, love this bind-off and find all sorts of excuses to use it :-) This'll be a short post, however (and aren't you grateful!), as we've got so much to do today. I have a dog with possible tumors on his fuzzy tummy, and I'm pretty worried about that. So, we're going to see the vetty-girl this afternoon.