So far, so good. This pattern is knitting up super fast, and now I am even a bit further than the picture. I’m at the heel.

The pattern warns about twisting occuring if you do not exactly match up the upper fold to the leg of the sock. I did not heed that warning. I think I have a twisting sock. Oh well, it doesn’t seem that bad. I’ll try harder on the second one.

Do you want to see what I did last night?

My incredible friend, Maiya, has a new hobby.

It’s called Pisanki. It’s an ancient Polish tradition. This is how they make Easter eggs! “The pisanki derive from an ancient tradition when eggs, the symbol of life, were endowed with magical properties and were thought to ensure both a plentiful harvest and good health. The name Pisanki comes from the Polish word “pisac”, which means to write.” (That little nugget of knowledge comes from the internet.)

Above you can see Maiya working on her egg. First, you make designs on the egg with hot wax. Then you dip it in some really strong dye.
After the first dye bath you can draw even more on the egg with your wax. Then you can dip it again. You can do this in as many different colors as you have. We had red and dark green, which make black when together.
When you think you’re done drawing and dyeing, it’s time to melt off the wax. This is done by CAREFULLY placing the egg near the flame, being careful not to scorch the egg, and wiping the hot wax off with napkins. Above you can see Maiya melting the wax off of her egg.

Maiya’s finished egg came out beautifully. Next it was my egg’s turn in the final dye.

And now to melt off that wax!


Now the funny thing is, you’re supposed to do this with white eggs. I brought eggs over to Maiya’s house so the kids could dye Easter eggs (the regular way) and didn’t realize that I brought over brown eggs!! So we used brown eggs for the Pisanki, not having any idea what they would turn out like.

We were both VERY happy with the results!

The brown egg showed through as gold!

How gorgeous are they?? Needless to say, I just might have a new hobby. I wish I had taken pictures of all the white egg ones Maiya had dyed. She had a whole bowl full and they looked so different from these two. I think these remind me of those ancient greek vases.

I can’t wait to do it again.

Ok, so they’re a little late. She’s my little sister, and she understands that socks take a lot of effort and time. But here they are, finished last night.

The pattern is called Cauchy from Cookie A’s book, Sock Innovation.

So, the pattern was really easy. And although proud of another pair of finished socks, I’m not in love with them. Aesthetically, the pattern itself is just ok…nothing as illustrious as Cookie’s other socks, but I needed something simple to work with the yarn. The yarn is the problem.

I used a yarn called Zauberball. When I saw the tiny picture on the skein, with the color softly blending in and out on a pair of socks, I fell in love and got excited. The yarn screamed out LIANA and I knew this was to become her requested pair of Christmas socks. But then the yarn got all super fuzzy as I was knitting it. I wasn’t happy about that, but the colors faded and blended properly on the first sock…the one on the left. Then came the right sock, and I realized as I was finishing up the heel, that the color had changed too quickly (GASP) and now the gusset was not looking like the beautiful fade of the first sock, but more like a stripe of different color across the top! This was NOT what was supposed to happen.
Sigh….what’s one to do? I wasn’t about to frog the sock after having knit the whole leg already. I’m not THAT much of a perfectionist. And I know Li won’t mind. So, anyway, here they are.

Now comes the fun part of deciding what pair of socks to knit next! I have been wanting to learn how to knit Toe-Up socks, so maybe I’ll try that.

I will have something new to show you!

I know I’ve said in previous posts how much I love the Sockhead Hat. Well, there is another hat that I’ve made 4 times now and I’d still make 4 more times. It’s called the Amanda Hat.

Not only is it as fun to make as the Sockhead Hat, but it looks better on me. Above is the green version I made for myself last year and wore for 2 winters now. My version is different from the actual pattern. The Lace Background Pattern they used, well….I can’t figure it out. I’m not too proud to admit when I’m beat. It’s not like I didn’t try it over and over…but I just couldn’t figure it out, lost all patience, and substituted stockinette stitches instead. It makes the hat soooo fast to knit and I think it looks great, if not just as good.

I decided to knit one for my lovely niece Gloria. But when I was finished, it fit this cutie:

So I let Emmet keep the hat, and started a new hat for Gloria, which I’ll leave to another post. I just love the shaping that happens in this simple pattern…made even more simple by skipping the lace background pattern.

Then my mom suddenly started knitting again, after many many years of not knitting. She made this beautiful scarf and sent it to me along with the extra skein of Noro yarn she had left over.

So I took the extra skein and knit up another Amanda Hat to go with it!

Soon I will post progress pictures of the works in progress I have going at the moment. Li’s socks are actually almost finished…they were supposed to be her Christmas present…for this PAST Christmas. Sigh…I never claimed to be a fast knitter.