It occurs to me that someone who has not seen me in my leather chair surrounded by yarn may wonder, based upon my heel flap nonsense, whether I have much knitting experience at all. Questions such as “How on earth did she get the first sock past the wretched little heel flap?” and (mischieviously) “What does that first sock look like?” Well, I have knit socks successfully in the past and the nearly finished sock does, indeed, look like a nearly finished sock.

Typically, though, I do not knit socks. Typically (at present), I knit wraps and shrugs and such that I have designed myself using 5-15 different yarns and, perhaps, as may stitches in a single piece. I also knit hats, scarves, sweaters from patterns. My knitting daughter, Sarah, and I have a small business, Pelagia Fiber Arts. You can check out our website (pelagiafiberarts.com) and get a better idea of our particular style.

I promised to open my knitting bag to you and let you know what is “on the needles.” I am finishing a Pelagic shrug called a Chillarmour (we tend to refer to the pieces we make for our business as “Pelagic” and we name each style). It is our prototype and I am anxious to get it done and start a new one without the design flaws we have struggled with in this one!

Also, I am knitting a cabled tunic (a brilliant Filatura Di Crosa pattern) in a deep teal-y blue merino– it is a sea of cables and I love every minute of it! (I notice I have trouble writing about my knitting projects without using exclamation points to excess) Also, I have begun designing and knitting tabard-like vest in Pelagic style (i.e., 8 or so different yarns and a mix of stitches) which I fancy I will have done so I can wear it at Stitches West.

Domestic harmony requires that I also mention the Fair Isle sweater I am knitting for my husband, George (a patient and understanding man who, I might add, did receive a lovely hand-knit alpaca Fair Isle tam for Christmas), though I admit I have not touched it in, well, a while. With impeccable knitter’s logic, I have tried to make up for the delay in finishing his Fair Isle sweater with the promise of a gorgeous Aran sweater – after I finish the Fair Isle, naturally. And then there are the socks, of course.

I seem to conclude each entry with those dear socks.