Pain d'épices socks...

I had all the best intentions when I brought that Hedgerow pattern and Colinette Vincent's Apron to France, but let's get real for a moment, shall we? Was a sock that required a pattern really the most appropriate choice? The second I boarded than plane and was seated amongst High School French Class Traveling With Loud Ipods and Multiple Decks of Uno Cards with room enough for Anxious Sneezing Hypochondriac Lady With Personal Space Issues to be seated right next to me, I knew that I was going to require a. a lot of those adorable little $5.00 gin bottles and b. low cognitive load I'm-not-really here-right-now-am-I knitting. So I pulled out a lil project that I had started right before Christmas and hunkered down.

These socks were the perfect knockaround pals for me on my trip. So easy to whip out for just a few moments of restorative knitting at various points in the day. I even made a new knitting friend because of them--one of my colleagues on the trip saw me bring them out to work on and exclaimed "Oh my God, you're a knitter!", which of course she was, too. So we had immediate rapport, kind of like when celebrities meet and instantly have something to talk about (i.e. paparazzi, getting hosed by your manager, best plastic surgeons in Poland) except for we gabbed non stop about all the usual issues. I even turned her on to Ravelry. (Evelyn, I'm waiting. You've had enough time to think of a cool handle, now come on!) It was fabulous. Knitters: we are legion.

I am calling them the pain d'épices socks, although gingerbread and pain d'épices are not exact equivalents, they merely belong to the same semantic field. But I'm saying that they are close enough. The yarn has a nice striping effect and because we're talking Socks that Rock we're talking springy sproingy.

The Specs
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight Gingerbread Dude
Pattern: Wendy's Toe-Up
Needles: Hiyahiya 1.5 Magic Loop

Now I didn't actually eat any pain d'épices which seems to be more of an Alsatian treat and not necessarily ultra-common in the South of France, but Lord knows I did frequent the above-pictured boulangerie-pâtisserie on a daily basis and had my fill of pain au raisin, which is basically my idea of sex in food form.

The colors in the above socks are truly fantastic (especially against our horrid green outdoor carpeting!) but aren't exactly seasonally appropriate, so naturally my thoughts are turning to the lovely shades of green that are threatening to make an appearance any day now. Luckily Wendee of Hazelknits did a recent shop update and solved my problems.

Above you see Hazelknits Artisan Sock in Euphorbia and Shady Verdant, both stunners that are fitting the Project Spectrum Earth bill as well as my desire to knit something in every shade of green imaginable.