Last Lion and New Knitting

I started a new reading project and a new knitting project this month. I'm on page 153 of the 1000 plus pages in William Manchester and Paul Reid's "The Last Lion," the last book in the series of three that Manchester wrote about Churchill. William Manchester died in 2004 and Paul Reid, with Manchester's blessing, took the research notes and finished this marvelous set of biography.

I've been reading Douglas Brinkley's "Cronkite" off and on. Brinkley chronicles the time that Walter Cronkite spent as a war correspondent in London during World War II's later days. The account in "Cronkite," while clearly serious and at a later time in London, has a carefree hint that is not present in the Churchill biography. In comparing the two accounts, I can see that Cronkite was chronicling while Churchill was governing.

"Last Lion" begins in the desperate days of 1940, before America entered the war. My admiration for Britain's tenacious will to survive has grown as I read the month by month account of the bombing of London and southern England. Churchill's strength of character rubbed off on the whole country. It was a desperate and remarkable time.

On to the knitting. It is the toe of a sock that you see atop the book.

I have never started knitting a sock from the toe up, but that's what I've learned to do this week. By means of a clever cast on process that loops yarn around two needles to create a starting point for both the underside (the sole) and the top (the instep), a sock is emerging from my needle.

I'm constantly amazed at the ingenuity of knitting. With two sticks and a strand of string, a very sculptural, practical fabric is built. Clever, clever.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Little Socks

When I knit a pair of socks, I have two small balls of yarn left over. I use short bamboo needles, usually US#1, to knit these bitty socks. The teeny needles and a little ball of yarn tuck into a corner of my handbag. The little needles look like pick up sticks, don't they?

Like most knitters, I can be pretty fanatic about having a knitting project with me all the time. These little socks are starting to pile up and will come in handy (a socks-only Christmas tree? a holiday swag with little mittens and little socks?) as the collection builds.

Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Zauberball Socks -- Again

I've just had too much fun with the word "Zauberball" and with sock knitting. Here are the Zauberball socks, finished, and modeled by my very own two feet, thanks to the magic of easily handled digital cameras. It helps that I finally got a pedicure for my winter weary feet.

One of the drawback of having yarn in the Graywood Studio Store is that I don't get to wear the samples that I knit. Not just yet anyway. So, these socks are at the Studio Store along with the luscious colors of Zauberball that we carry. I can look forward to a day when the socks can come home with me and keep my feet warm on a cold night.

Zauberball Socks

The leg of the first sock is done. I knit the leg on double pointed five inch bamboo needles while on a Delta Airlines flight this week. I really prefer knitting socks on a long circular needle but figured that if TSA at Detroit Metro Airport decided to confiscate knitting needles, I'd rather lose the less expensive bamboo needles than an Addi Turbo 40" needle.

The yarn is Zauberball which translates from the German as "Magic Ball." Color change is subtle, the yarn glides across the needles and into the knitting, and I'm enjoying the creating process immensely.