Orchids in the garden?

Tags

clothing, knitting, Lipstick, patterns, Shopping, socks, texture, yarn

Well no, not really.

But this is a sock called Orchid hanging out on my balcony. I’d bought this lovely Atelier Zitron Trekking (XXL) yarn in a lipstick moment when I’d gone into a yarn shop nearby that I’d never paid much attention to up to now.

Then of course I needed a good pattern. I tried out a few different things. The stripes are too well-defined for many textured patterns (although Uzu looked quite good).

In the end I went with Orchidee (scroll down for the English instructions). It appears to be a variation on the waffle stitch pattern. The purled rows really make the slipped stitches stand out. I worked this toe-up and knitted my preferred toes and heels.

The pattern is very straightforward and so lends itself to car-knitting. A very respectable amount of the first sock was done on a 750 km weekend trip to northern Germany. The remainder was partly knit outside. On the balcony.

A woman needs shoes

Tags

love, projects, Shoe, Shopping, socks

There’s a bit of a stereotype that all women have hundreds of pairs of shoes. I do know women who appear – to my eyes at least – to possess ten pairs of (nearly) identical black heels and another ten of flats but I’m different. I walk a lot and use local public transport. I like to walk at a ‘smart’ pace as if I’m on a mission so I like comfy shoes. When I get a new pair I wear them day-in-day-out until they look as though they are as comfortable  as they feel; verging on the shabby perhaps?

But I too was stricken by the shoe bug. I knew exactly what I wanted and nothing else would do. I looked online and in local shops until finally I found them – the perfect way for me to show off  admire my handknit socks…