These socks are deceptive in their basic, striped, simplicity. Due to the yarn used, Rowan 4 ply Soft, these are the most expensive pair of socks I've made to date, even with getting some of it on sale. These were an experiment to see how this yarn would knit up and hold up over time and regular washings. It's one of those squooshy, super soft, machine washable merino wool yarns and I loved knitting with it. If it does live up to my hopes for it, I have dreams of making Alice from Rowan Book 35 some day, substituting this yarn for the 4 ply cotton, that is, whenever I could afford to do so. Since I don't even have the pattern book, making a gauge swatch in the stitch pattern with my leftovers isn't even an option right now. The 4 ply soft has 26 fewer yards per 50 gram ball than the 4 ply cotton. I have a feeling it's just another one of those projects to dream about that may not ever happen.
These socks really should have been for C or for my dad. I certainly don't need another pair, myself. I just wasn't sure there would have been enough yarn for that and, like I said, I'd like to see, personally, how this yarn will wear over time and what gets more wear than a pair of socks being walked on over and over again and needing frequent washings?
I started knitting these socks one evening a few weeks ago when we drove over the mountains west of us to the even more remote Yaak river valley where C took measurements for a kitchen he will be doing for a friends' dad's new house there. While he worked, I threw rocks in the creek with the boys, explored the woods and old barn, and hauled firewood, knitting by a campfire while they repeatedly climbed up and launched themselves down one of the dirt and rock piles left from excavating the basement, both of them happy but ending up about as brown and grey from head to toe as the yarn I was knitting with.
We have camped at this location before amongst old, delapidating homestead buildings. One trip there was even a combined camping trip/work party to tear one of the buildings down and salvage as much of the lumber as possible. C will include some of the lumber salvaged from another building that sat where the new house is going up today in the cabinet doors that will go in the kitchen.
These pics are from a salvaged-lumber yard nearby on the site of an old lumber mill. C is like a kid in a candy store in this place and I can see why: heaps of recyled lumber that has more character and finer qualities than any wood being logged from the woods today. The boys had just as much fun roaming in this maze of woodpiles with their younger cousin. There is also a commercial composting facility in one of the old warehouse buildings. Good stuff happening here!
These are just the smallest of glimpses, hardly representative really, of how C is using reclaimed lumber, on interior walls on the left, and mixed with steel as part of a rustic picnic table on the right. I hope to share more and better pictures of some of his work someday soon. He's been designing and building on both a large and smaller scale in the past year or so, mixing new and recycled lumber with glass and metal elements, also both new and recycled, combining the rustic with the sleek and modern for some incredible results.
