Don't you think of anything but socks?

Shhh... an admission: the Pilgrim is a socks-addict. Indeed, he is obsessed with the Long-Suffering Other's longstanding obsession with stipey socks of any sort. To feed this need, one recently discovered the lovely Lorna's Laces Sock yarn. Yes, one knows he has arrived quite late to the cotillion, but oh, what a delightful dance it is!

Pilgrim's first Lorna's Laces Socks!

So pleased was he with this initial experience, that ... well ...

Yes, a delightful splash of Lorna's has been added to the increasingly large Pilgrim Socks Stash. Lots of splendid socks-fueled highs ahead....

Sock Porn!

Diagarter Scarf

A while back, you may recall, the Pilgrim shared a stash-busting experiment -- the Diagonal Garter Scarf, which was a playful way to use up some lovely Noro Silk Garden that for many months had been hanging out in the limbo land of the yarn closet.

Well, it is finished, and I believe the auspicious start proved right. Tis a scarf a Pilgrim will wear with some satisfaction, should winter ever decide to come.

Sadly, or not so, the Pilgrim has been on a spree of late, and, as a consequence, the yarn closet is once more expanding beyond its seams. What, pray tell, is a Pilgrim to do?

Only what one can do, one supposes.

Pick up sticks.

And knit.

How one spent one's summer vacation

Gentle Reader, be it known far and wide that the Pilgrim has returned from his long summer holiday. And quite the jaunt it was, hither and thither across European soils: time spent relaxing with family, and friends, and people not known to one at all, including, one might say, bizarre close encounters with a female member of the United States Supreme Court (at an adjacent dining table), and a certain very blonde head of a famed Italian fashion house (in the airplane seat just opposite on the return journey home). And her little dog, too...

Indeed, wonderful diversions all, and now, alas, I am back.

And although it was a terrific trip for the appetite and the soul, one cannot state that it was great for the knitting. Nay, one might say that the Pilgrim experienced a most frustrating time with the garment he chose to bring along.

Not so very long ago, some of you may recall a certain "hoodie" the Pilgrim knit up for his nephew, the young and exceedingly polite Matthew. Well, the Pilgrim has dreamt of just such an item for himself long since - but in cotton rather than wool.

To start, one found a fiber he was willing to try - Cascade Yarns Sierra Pima Cotton / Merino Wool 80-20 blend in a suitable shade of gray. He decided to forego the undoubtedly modern Noro striping, and settled instead upon a contrast of the same fiber - in black, of course. It was at this point that the trouble began...

False start 1:

Although the Pilgrim spent much more time than that to which he is accustomed testing his gauge and whatnot, after knitting the hood (back and forth) and then shifting to in-the-round for the body, he discovered, much to his dismay, that the gauge too had suffered a shift. The back-and-forth section was a at least two needle sizes larger than the in-the-round! And so, alas, there was nothing to do but to frog the frigger and start anew.

False start 2:

At our second destination along the trip, all was going well. One had compensated by knitting very tightly on the purl side of the back-and-forth hood section, and switched to a larger needle size and a looser knit for the in-the-round. Blithely did one knit...and knit...and knit...round and round and round and round. Happily adding a stripe here and there, varying the pattern with whim and whimsy. Oh what fun. That is...until one decided actually to try the blasted thing on. TOO SMALL. Ridiculously so. And so, the Pilgrim frogged the so-and-so, and frogged and frogged some more!

At our final stop - at our friends' lovely home in the Dordogne - one screwed up one's courage, took needles in hand and started again. And so far, so good. Sharing herewith, the current state of things.

Until next time, very fond regards from a somewhat relaxed and exceedingly long-winded Knitty P!

On Pilgrimage

Gentle Reader, the Knitty Pilgrim is away on vacation. Do check back in early August for more adventures in knittery. Until then...Happy Knitting!

Summer Socks

Gentle Reader, fellow Pilgrims amongst you surely will recognize that the Knitty Pilgrim is not one to indulge in trendy abbreviation. No. The Knitty Pilgrim does not "text." One does not find here flippant mentions of the "FO" or "LYS." The Pilgrim is seldom moved to exclaim "OMG!" or indicate that one is "LMAO!" The Pilgrim is inclined to insert two proper spaces following the period at the end of a sentence, and always to include the punctuation inside the quotation mark.

The Pilgrim is a dying breed, I fear. A dinosaur. A curmudgeon. Alas.

Nevertheless, he still can be known to take some small delight in the completion of yet another in a series of silly, stripey socks for the Long-Suffering Other. In cotton, no less, and just in time for Summer.

Behold: happy, if long-suffering, feet!

P.S. OK, regular readers amongst you will recognize one notable abbreviation in the Knitty Pilgrim lexicon: the "L-SO."

Do feel free to share what you yourselves are knitting to welcome Summer!

And, until next time, kind regards. -- K.P.

In Memoriam

The Master

Yves Saint Laurent

Spring Awakening

One knows that spring has arrived with the appearance lilacs for sale outside every deli on the Upper West Side. At long last, we are experiencing here in the City a burst of lovely, winsome weather.

Ah Spring! The trees bud, the tulips bloom, and city faces bear giddy smiles. A euphoria is felt in spite of oneself, and one's best efforts to appear steady, stern.

Yet, with this joyous surge also dawns a dilemma: What to knit? And, frankly, who wants to? Who wants to knit when there are buds to sniff and parks to roam in all their fleeting, springtime splendor? For a Pilgrim as Knitty as oneself, 'tis quite the quandary.

On reflection, one realizes 'tis nature's way of telling the Pilgrim: Lighten Up! Think small! Think cotton! Think Socks!

And so, the Pilgrim embarks on yet another in a series of stripey socks for the L-SO. This time, doing the striping oneself using three different cotton yarns in a royal blue, a light blue and a very spring-y green.

Tedious it 'tis, but oh how uplifting for Long-Suffering feet!

One down, one more to go. May they put a Spring in his step!