The Joys (and sorrows) of Giving

Tomorrow, I'm headed down to Niagara Falls, to attend the wedding of a friend. The wedding is being held in Eastdell Estates winery, in, of course, "the heart of wine country". I love any opportunity to get back to the Niagara region, and I hope to have lots of wonderful pictures to share. And wine. Which may or may not be shared.

The couple getting married are one of those hard-to-buy for couples, as they've already got an established house. So I wanted to get them something useful, but a bit different. Something unique and beautiful. I clicked my way over to Etsy, and found the perfect thing.

This is from oladesign, on Etsy. As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with it. I almost ordered two of them.

I think maybe I should have. Because it's just as beautiful in person as it was on the website.

The set was a little bit smaller than I thought it would be, but that was more my mistaken assumptions than anything. The colours are just as vivid, and the scale makes it almost cute, but definitely not 'cutesy'.

The box isn't wrapped yet. Just sayin'.

In yarny news, I've still dealing with this new sock addiction. I can't seem to function if I don't have one on the needles. I've done three pairs so far - the first was toe-up feather and fan, the second was a pair of Jaywalkers, and the third was the lace-ish monkey pattern. I decided it was about time for me to do a plain-Jane, normal sock, with no frippery. Perfect for a self-striping yarn.

I'm really enjoying knitting this. Not worrying about following a stitch pattern is giving me the opportunity to really pay attention to the architecture of the sock (sockitecture?) and understand better how all these instructions work together to make a three dimensional sock, complete with heel flap and gusset and whatnot.

And! These will be my first socks that will not be all for me. When I started them, they were going to be mine, but I've come to understand that there is someone who needs them more than me. And so I am happy to know now that these will be handed over to someone who really, really needs handknit comfort right now. You may know who you are.

Having a recipient in mind makes the knitting more joyful for me. Of course, it also makes me more critical of my small errors, but I'm hoping that blocking will help with that. (I've never blocked a sock before, though, so who knows?) The cheerful stripes are multiplying quickly, and I hope to have the first sock done, and the second well started by the end of this weekend.