Java Jive

I was all set to write about my second pair of socks knit from a particular pattern when I realized I had never mentioned the first pair. Which is astonishing, because I love that first pair. It was another example of a great yarn/pattern match-up. I made a second pair in a different yarn for myself, and I like them, but not with the passion I have for the first pair.

The pattern is Java, from the Knitty Winter 2011 edition. It looked like a fun pattern to try. All I needed was some not too colorful yarn, so all that lovely texture wouldn't get lost. The 2011 MS&W had netted me some Creatively Dyed - Beaches, I think, but the label is long gone. I put the two together, and voila!

Pattern: Java

Yarn: Creatively Dyed (Beaches?)

Needles: 2.25 mm




 
This past summer I acquired some sock yarn as a souvenir of my trip to Alaska, and decided the perfect way to show it off was to knit up some Java of my own. They turned out very nice.




Pattern: Java

Yarn: Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts
         100% Superwash BFL

Needles: 2.25 mm

 I have enough left over to knit something else, something lacy and beaded and totally worthless as outdoor wear on this day when it's snowing and blowing and the temperature is plummeting. Something merely decorative.

 

A Gift from Ireland

Don't you love it when a fellow fiber enthusiast brings you yarn from faraway places? A skein of lovely chunky handspun made its way to me from Ireland this summer. When my traveling friend gave it to me, she remarked that the colors had just seemed to suggest it was for me - and then we had a good laugh, because the outfit I happened to be wearing that day encompassed every one of the fall palette of colors spun into this yarn.

Sometimes I take such gifts into my stash and meditate on them so long I forget their provenance. This one I wound into a ball and cast on immediately, and at the end of the week had mitts and a matching headband that I knew I wouldn't be able to wear for months, but which please me no end.

  

Yarn: handspun wool from Ireland

Pattern: Sherwood Mitts, cuff pattern used to make headband