Rødt

There are not many things that I hate, but I have to admit that I actively hate the color red. It makes me anxious. I find it visually jarring. It drowns out other colors. I don't like the way it is overloaded with symbolic meaning (love, sports cars, lipstick, a red dress, the devil...). There are some orange-reds and blue-reds that I really like, but the closer you get to true primary red on the color wheel, the more I cringe.

So of course my heart sunk a little when KE picked out the colors for his ski socks. On the one hand, I'm delighted to make them and up for the challenge, but on the other hand I dread weeks of carrying around not just any red yarn, but knallrødt, in-your-face cherry red yarn. I finished the first sock rather quickly, but had to put the second one into time out, due to red overload. I got it out again for the harrytur and then, in a marathon of knitting yesterday, I finished the whole thing up. I am so pleased with myself for actually finishing two ski socks that are each over 90 cm (about a yard) long in a color that I despise. And they actually look kind of cute, at least when hanging over the wood stove to dry:

I also spent some time yesterday swatching that yarn I bought in Sweden. I thought it might work to make one of Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Pi" shawls from The Knitter's Almanac. Here's one strand (rather worse for the wear from untangling it) on 4mm needles:

It's a fun pattern, but I think the yarn is just way too thin for it. I'm thinking about doubling it and trying again. I realized that part of the appeal of the yarn in the store was the way the colors were blended together in the skein, and I'm hoping that knitting two strands together might recreate that effect.

I'm going to let it sit for a while and concentrate on finishing sweater number 12 instead. But after an incredibly rainy day yesterday the sun is out today, so we'll probably try to take advantage of that and spend some time outside. I'm just waiting for the real fall weather to descend upon us, so any day with sun seems like a gift this late in the year.