Avoidance with Sock Knitting

You might remember that back in July I mentioned road removal.

That was over on the east side of the state, but all summer they've been removing the highway here on the west side, too.

This was taken from what would usually be the southbound lane, looking east towards the northbound lane. They have the southbound lane divided in half, with two-way traffic on it.

Is this a good time to mention that the US rule "north-south highways have odd numbers and east-west highways have even numbers" applies somewhat differently in Michigan? Or that I was well into young adulthood before I even heard of it?

When you live on a peninsula, sometimes "east-west" goes north-south for tens of miles at a time.

All weekend I've been avoiding working on the handout for the double knitting class I'll be teaching Wednesday at the Lakeshore Fiber Arts guild meeting.

Am I the only one for whom "avoidance" turns into "working on something else as if that would get what I'm avoiding done"?

What I worked on was socks. The short-row toes are Oxford Grey Wool-Ease, and the foot is Artist Print Red Heart Super Saver, so all the yarn purists can shudder, shake their heads at my perfidy, and reach for the smelling salts.

I don't know why the toes are grey. Ummm, because it seemed like a good idea at the time? I wish I had taken photos of their several incarnations. I re-knitted the toes about three times as I struggled with stitch count. These are 8 stitches fewer than the 60-stitch Blue Mist Wool-Ease socks I finished in June or the Denim Twist ones I finished last December.

I bought one five-needle set of 3.00 mm double-pointed knitting needles at the Michigan Fiber Festival back in August. However, since I like to knit both socks at one time, I ended up using two 3.00 mm, one 2.75 mm, and one 3.25 mm in each sock!

The 3.00 mm needles are Addi stainless steel ones, and boy do they feel heavy. I worked each heel using only the 3.00 mm needles, and with three of these at once in a sock, I knitted them resting on my knee to keep the weight off my wrists.

I think my color sense is skewed about 15 degrees off from the rest of the world, because I seem to like colors that make other people shudder. (Yes, go away, I do test as having normal color vision.) In any case, I love the subtle color runs in this yarn. It makes me think of the color changes in ash tree leaves in the fall, or the colors of a Monet.

And yes, it would be lovely if it came in a superwash wool blend instead of acrylic, so if you find a superwash yarn like this that doesn't cost 22 USD a skein, let me know.