Sea Silk socks

Recipient: Mom
Designer: Possibly Aleta Fera
Pattern: Possibly 'Vog on
Source: Knitty
Due: Unknown
Colours: Variegated prply-aqua-pinkish
Yarn: Sea Silk from Handmaiden: 70% silk/30% SeaCell laceweight
Planned status: To decide for-sure on pattern

2007-Jun-14

Speaking of socks...I think I've found the pattern I want to use to make socks for my mom out of the Sea Silk I bought. The summer issue of Knitty has just come out, and I'm interested in 'Vog on. The lack of legs on these socks means I don't have to worry about whether the socks will slouch uncomfortably down my mom's legs when she wears them. And they're lace, which will look super with the yarn. And they're really pretty. And they won't take up too much yardage, which means I might be able to make a small wrap with the remaining yarn. All good stuff.

2006-Jun-15

This is "Sea Silk" from Handmaiden. It is really cool stuff and I've been hankering (no pun intended) after some for a while. But the cost was always kinda prohibitive. At 20% off, though...I caved. This stuff is niiiice. It even smells like the sea (that salty seaweedy tang).

I bought it because I thought it would make absolutely fabulous socks for my mom. She blisters super-easily, and finds wool scratchy. I had bought some Austermann Step yarn - infused with jojoba and aloe oils - intended to be socks for my mom for Christmas. But lately I've been nervous that this yarn, being 75% wool, would be too scratchy for my mom even with the oil infusion. Whereas silk is absolutely not scratchy, and the advertised release of vitamins and minerals, anti-inflammatory properties and whatnot from the seaweed in the yarn strikes me as a huge plus for my mom's wussy feet.

The only thing is that there are 400m of yarn in this skein. That's enough to make a small lace shawl! (As evidenced by one lovely lady who showed up last night in a GORGEOUS dark purplish lace concoction made out of a single skein of Sea Silk. Harlot took a photo of it last night and will probably be posting it on her blog today, so go take a look.) And it's definitely enough for more than one pair of socks. So...what do I do? I mustn't keep it all for myself - that would be wrong. But it's so tempting! I really must use at least half of it to make Mom some socks. But the other half - what do I do with that? Make something small and snazzy for myself? Make Mom a second pair of socks? And then...what do I do with the Austermann stuff? Do I still make her socks out of it? Which socks will be her Christmas gift this year?

Sigh. I just don't know.