While in Lincraft in Sydney back in August, I bought a ball of their sock yarn – but in a much brighter colour scheme than I normally go for!

I had to use the flash to photograph this, so it’s showing a bit brighter than the reality – but even in reality, it’s definitely not subtle 🙂

The yarn has sat for while in the stash, because I’m really not keen on stripes, so I needed a pattern that would soften the impact of bright vertical stripes. While cruising around various sites, I came across the pattern for the jaywalker socks, which I’ve often seen on knitting blogs in various yarns. A quick peruse of the pattern, and I was pleased to see that it’s not complicated – good for relatively brainfree knitting.

So, out came the new bamboo knitting needles.

I’ve made some progress on the first one, and it’s easy to knit, but I’m still not adoring the colour scheme. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it, either. I probably lean more towards reds with purples, rather than orange. However, I’ll keep on going, at least for now!

And in other updates:

1) I will have enough yarn to finish the Fisherman’s gansey. I’m about four rows from finishing the sleeves, and I weighed the various parts and leftovers today, and there will be enough for the front – and the collar! So, that’s a relief.

2) I’m not enjoying the bamboo needles. I usually knit with metal ones, and I’ll give these a reasonable try out to see if I get more used to them, but so far I’m not finding them as smooth, plus they feel fragile to me.

3) Many thanks to Bev, Astrid and Jen for your suggestions re lacy capelet possibilities. I’ve had a look a the various patterns suggested, and bookmarked a few. Nothing is exactly what I had in mind, but I’ve had some inspirations from them, and there’s an idea that’s percolating away in mymind as a result.

4) The lacy socks I’m knitting haven’t progressed any further since turning the heel. I’m using 2.5mm needles, which is my usual size with 4ply yarn, but I’m thinking that perhaps with this pattern, I may need to use 3mm needles, because the lace pulls in for a tighter tension. So, I might start one on 3mm needles, and see how it goes.