No, well, it doesn’t seem that the Scandinavians shaped the soles of their stockings after all, as far as my books go. Vibeke Lind, McGregor, Pagoldh, and I threw in Nancy Bush on Estonia. These books include photographs of museum specimens. The feet are patently unshaped.

Perhaps slightly surprising, given all those elegantly shaped calves. Calfs?

So for the time being, at least, EZ must have the credit for getting there first.

I was happy to renew my acquaintance with Susanne Pagoldh’s “Nordic Knitting”, definitely my top favourite among the books I own but have never knit from. This time my eye is caught by the Portom sweater (that’s Finland) on page 76. Maybe it’s having grown-up grandsons that makes the difference. I’ll add it to the HALFPINT list – but it’s a long one.

Anyway, here’s the current state of the Oliver bedsock. I’ve finished the gusset, and another oddball. I do the increase-decrease thing every three rounds, and the line of decreases has now curved around to the outer edge of the instep stitches. Great fun.

Back to the Griswold. Here it is: six feet long and about a foot across. I took a picture of the whole thing, but it’s pretty meaningless without a context, so I zoomed in on the middle to show you how smooth and invisible my grafting is. And look at that:

I can assure you there’s no such visible line in real life.

(Next summer, if I get to Knit Camp, I expect the classes I hope to take with Jared and with Donna Druchunas to be inspiring and fun, but I expect to do the serious learning in Franklin’s class on photographing fabric.)

The Griswold may be dry enough to unpick today. I am so glad to have it, as a tangible part of that happy weekend in CT and in particular as a souvenir of the day spent with Cynthia and Sue (who gave me the yarn and pattern) at the Florence Griswold Museum. It is not unlikely to be the last full day I ever spend on my native soil, and it was a good one.

Left-over sock yarn

It is sad to learn that you find yours a life-complicating issue, Ron. Life is bad enough, without further complication. I can’t remember when I passed the point where I realised that I’m not going to finish knitting all the yarn I’ve got. Maybe it was 15 years or so ago, when I got online and learned that it’s called “stash” and that everybody’s got lots of it. It’s not that I don’t still try to stay on top of things.

But specifically, sock yarn. Jean’s suggestion of a mitred blanket is a good one. And, apart from bedsocks, I use oddballs for the toes of gents’ socks, these days. I like to knit them long in the leg, and 50 grams is not quite enough for one sock. So instead of buying three balls, I get only two and finish off the toe with something from the oddball bag, harmonious or outrageous depending on the disposition of the gentleman for whom the sock is intended.