The Pacific Northwest had a huge storm roll in Thursday night. In Seattle it rain about two inches in one hour! I’ve only seen that kind of rain during the rainy season in Thailand.

Many areas are still without power and/or phone service. We were lucky and didn’t loose power or have any trees fall on our house. Our ISP, however, is located in an area that got hit hard so our Internet connection has been down and was just restored a few hours ago.

Since I’m making slow progress on my mitten design I decide to get clicking on another small project. It’s Sunrise-Sunset socks by Jaya Srikrishanan from Big Girl Knits. The photo shows my swatch. Yeah, I do swatches even for socks.

I’m not sure if I like the colors. The red/purple yarn is beautiful but the blue/purple is a little bright for my taste.

Instead of following the pattern, I started from the toes using Judy’s Magic Cast-on and adjusting the size to fit my feet. The pattern is for a specific size but the book also includes a section after the pattern that describes how to adjust a pattern to fit  a specific foot and leg.

This week I’ve been reading “A History of Hand Knitting” by Richard Rutt. I just had to laugh when I got to the last section on page 161.

Socks and Stockings were the most frequently hand-knitted garments from the beginning of popular knitting until the 1950’s. Today they can hardly be seen, and only the old can remember how to turn a heel with out referring to a book. … A few patterns only remain in print; and hosiery wool, though still spun, is not readily available. Stockings were always dull work. Today’s knitter expects more pleasure from the craft.

I wonder what he thinks now (if he’s still with us).