A New Traveling Sock for Stitches West

In honor of our departure tomorrow for Stitches West, I've decided to cast on a new pair of traveling socks. Although the ShadowBlock socks, which I am planning to wear on the trip with my black-and-white slacks, are not quite finished, they will be soon – either prior to departure or on the boat to the mainland.

The new socks will look somewhat like these – same pattern and yarn, but different colorway. The pattern is "Broad Spiral Ribbing" from More Sensational Knitted Socks. It's amazingly simple to produce such a pretty rib.

I'll be using Austermann Step in color #03, which looks much lovelier in person than in this pic. There are tons of little rust flecks throughout the various shades of green. And the spiral ribbing pattern really makes the rust color pop.

In other knitting news, I have finished the body of the Clock Vest. All that remains is to bind off the shoulders, finish the armholes and the neck, and create the button bands. I still don't know exactly how to handle the button-band issue. Much will depend on how the vest fits after the shoulders are connected. As for the buttons themselves -- I'm counting on finding something nifty at the Stitches Marketplace. I've no idea what would look good. The embossed pewter buttons shown in the pattern illustration are a little too 'folksy' for my taste. But one couldn't go too modern either, not and stay within the spirit of the garment. Hopefully the exactly right buttons will call out to me from one of the booths.