Cloverleaf Koigu Socks
Here they are, done! Lying on some kind of bush in the shade in Reno, NV. After seeing the shades of pink in the painted desert, the hues in these look a little tame to me, but there’s no denying it, Koigu makes some incredible colours.
I am quite kicked with this pattern. I picked out the cloverleaf stitch out of Barbara Walker, and it’s a simple repeat over 6 rows and 3 stitches. So with 60 stitches, it’s easy to adapt it to the overall sock pattern. I did the usual cloverleaf pattern for the left sock, which slanted leftwards and then came up with a reverse cloverleaf of sorts ("unvented" to quote Elizabeth Zimmerman!) to have it slant rightwards. Am very pleased with it only! Hey, we’ll do all we can to avoid SSS, right? This afforded the right variation for the second sock to feel different. The pattern makes instinctive visual sense in terms of placement of the pattern (once the initial six rows are done you basically shift the cloverleaves three stitches over, that’s it), but am trying to write it up. It doesn’t lend itself to easy and clear narration. Let’s see, maybe a chart.
One odd thing was that all other things being equal, I knit the first sock on size 0 metals and the second on size 0 bamboos: the second sock is marginally larger. Not large enough for me to frog it, but noticeable.
Oh, so I finally didn’t go to Vegas. After seeing Phoenix, AZ I was all the more convinced that I didn’t want to see bright lights in the middle of the desert. Phoenix reminded me of Delhi in more ways than one, none of them complimentary, of which the heat was the most prominent. Walking in the afternoon in Phoenix gave me some idea of what to expect next month in ze good ol’ capital city, even though I’m *dying* to go back to Delhi after six years and visit some of my old haunts and friends. The drive to Reno from Phoenix was alternately hellish and heavenly: the desert was deeply depressing (and gas $4 a gallon: had to be, when I’m driving a car for the first time in two years, right?) but the Sierra Nevada mountains, esp. near Lake Mono, Tahoe and the Walker river were out of this world. Haven’t seen much of Reno yet but am mostly going to catch up on some sleep here.