Silk Road City

Having polished off three socks of shame, I felt emboldened to cast on for January Sockdown. It really is still January, despite today's monsoonal wind and rain and unseasonable warmth. For the first sock cast on of the new year I went with Traveler by Janel Laidman and Socks That Rock Lightweight colorway Blue Moonstone because of the new year's blue moon and my present mood. The sock is a little involved at the moment.



Traveler includes beading, cables, and a seamless secret pocket, shown in progress. The designer's description makes me think of fabulous tales of Marco Polo and the travel clothes with secret jewel compartments he had made in Samarkand. The sock is fiddly and absorbing, which I appreciate because the Silk Road city I've been thinking about lately is Kandahar.

In church each Sunday we read the names of U.S. KIAs and also pray for our enemies. Yesterday the shift from one theater of war to another was heartbreakingly noticeable, both in the numbers and the ages of the dead. There were many, many more killed in Afghanistan and they're getting younger, stark indicators of escalation. The prayer practice has been going on for a very long time, but someone objected strenuously the other day. I guess there's nothing like present reality to deflate both romantic history and legend.

A couple months ago, I won a drawing for a sample skein of St. Denis yarn, which arrived over the weekend. Merci, Veronik Avery!



The mini skein of Nordique is a lovely raspberry sportweight. I'm eager to try it, but the skein was so tightly twisted that it had the effect of overspinning the yarn. It needs to relax a bit; perhaps we all do.