I stayed out way too late for a school night last Tuesday. Deborah and her husband invited me over for dinner and knitting to celebrate her Birthday! Her husband made Mac and Cheese, roasted broccoli and chicken satay! I’d never tried satay before and it was delicious. Bring on the peanut sauce, I say! The Mac and Cheese was so good I had a second helping for “dessert” and then asked for the recipe.

I may or may not have accidentally dripped peanut sauce on my Nain sock, then licked it off because that seemed like the quickest way to remedy the situation. I was not wrong.

This couple acted like people spreading knitting around their plates and licking sauce off a sock is an everyday occurrence.

I managed to only huff the tiny bundt cakes that were dessert. Yay me!!! No desserts til my jeans fit! I so appreciate them being supportive and not trying to peer pressure me into sugar!

Deborah and I each managed to cast on Silk Road Socks. Overachiever that she is, she managed to cast on more projects after I left! I started Usak and Nain. For the record, I knit Nain a size up from my usual because the stitch pattern is not stretchy. It is gorgeous! Yarn is Quince & Co. Tern (75% Wool, 25% Silk) in the Beach Glass colorway. Tern has amazing stitch definition.

Usak appeals because it flies off the needles once you get through the decorative cuff. Yarn is Seven Sisters Arts Meridian (75% Merino, 25% Nylon) in the Curry colorway. I’m terribly impressed with Seven Sisters Arts yarn if you happen to be in the market to enhance your stash.

Deborah cast on Mood socks with Intrepid Otter TWIST! in the Jenny colorway (blue/gray) and
Lycaena virgaureae socks (from Knitters Curiosity Cabinet II) in Wollewien Handgefarbte Sockenwolle (pink).

Deborah is @dcbritter if you stack your Instagram feed with knitters as I do. I look forward to hanging out with these peeps again soon. I’ll try not to spill anything on the wool next time!

Friday night, I was happily knitting on my Curl when the movie ended and I hopped up to put my knitting away instead of moving normally like most adults. My favorite wooden cable needle left its perch behind my ear, went flying and i heard it hit the tile floor. We had company over, so the four of us scoured the room and it was nowhere to be found. Our friends departed and I spent the next 45 minutes turning the area upside down. Maybe I’d misplaced it sooner than I thought so I looked back at the knitting. No such luck as I had used the needle 10 seconds prior to it going rogue. Now, I have other cable needles, but having one vanish into thin air was making me more than a little crazy. In the end, I gave up and went to bed.

Saturday morning, before I rolled out of bed, I prayed to find my cable needle before I went completely mad. I’m not an every Sunday churchgoer (I normally attend around election time), but I absolutely believe in God and the power of prayer.

While you are obviously welcome to believe as you wish, what follows are facts. A few minutes later, i went in the other room and thought, I should look at this from another angle. So, I moved the couch (and vacuumed because let’s be honest, it needed it. If nothing else, at least my house would be cleaner after this ordeal), then reclined on the floor and looked up with a flashlight under the chair I’d been sitting in. There, in an almost hidden dark cavity within the chair peaked out the tiniest end of my cable needle! I got some tweezers and tried to get it out Operation style. Almost! Nope, i dropped it even further into the cavity and it was no longer visible. Oh well. At least I know where it is and a two year old Cheeto is now in the trash.

Enter The Husband. I opened with, “Guess what? I found my needle!!! but it’s in the chair and it seems like it would be a big pain to take it apart and get it out. (i’m eyeing the bolts of the chair.) It’s only a $4 needle.” Now, there are many things to love about The Husband; my favorite is that when I say that something is impossible or difficult, he cracks a small smile and like Disney magic, it’s done. I was hoping against hope that he was going to deliver once again and hand me back my tiny wooden needle, but it really did seem like 8 bolts, grease and running the risk of breaking the chair, so I was nearing the end of my hopeline when he responded, “I put the chair together. I’m pretty sure I can get that out. It’s just two screws.” As he dropped the needle in my hand 10 minutes later, he said, “I just can’t believe you saw it in there.” Yes, that was the hard part.

Now that my cable needle is safely back in its project bag pocket, let’s admire the socks I recently finished!

Pattern: Ensnared by Hunter Hammersen
Yarn: Meadowcroft Dyeworks Rockshelter Sock
Colorway: Guatemalanness
Needles: 2.25mm DPN’s
Purchased from Quixotic Fibers at DFW Fiber Fest


And speaking of The Husband’s handiwork, he created a subscription option if you’re interested!

Austrian/Bavarian/German twisted stitches are one of my favorite styles to knit. I can usually manage without a cable needle and their tidy magic enchants me. These socks feature twisted stitches and a fair bit of ribbing, so they are speedier than most patterns in this genre. If you’re looking for a nice balance of twisted stitches and quick to knit, these are the socks for you.

Pattern: Greenhorn (it’s coming out Tuesday so sign up for Hunter’s mailing list if you’d like a discount code)
Needles: Addi Sock Rockets 2.25mm
Yarn: SpaceCadet Oriana 8-ply

I’m already enjoying wearing these socks. Here are some fun places they’ve been:
Slumber party with my childhood BFF at a local hotel. She’s the kind of friend that will hold a lamp so I can get better lighting for sock pics.

and to the movies with The Husband.
I like them enough that I’m tempted to knit a second pair. What do we think? Red?