public holiday knitting

I decided I was having a public holiday today too. It's a beautiful morning here although warming up. I was up early, after a decent sleep. I've been sitting on the back deck, knitting, getting a head star on the first pair of socks for the KAL.

This is four repeats of the Drooping Elm leaf from a Barbara Walker book. Not my pattern, but zockni socks, mentioned below. I had wanted green and couldn't find much in my stash. I wanted a deepish green colour and I could find only soft green. However, nowhere near me sells sock wool at all, and I didn't get to the city over the weekend. As I will have to move in the next few months, I'm trying to use stash. So we have autumnal drooping leaves in brown, rather than spring green fresh leaves.

It's very simple pattern, fairly meditative to knit. I'm marking off the rows in my cute sheep row counter which came with the last English Simply Knitting. It's cheaply made and I watch to make sure I clock over only one row in the count. However, it's cheap and cheerful and certainly useful as I seem to have misplaced my other counter. Hmm, perhaps I need to check my bags of stash or even a couple of UFOs. Who know what will turn up?

I've done more ribbing than suggested and 2x2 instead of a single rib. Pattern suggests 6 repeats before heel, but I may not do that many. Hopefully if I take a holiday all day, I might just get this one finished. Tomorrow I'm back to work after a week mid-semester break. It's really only mid-semester for those who are doing exams and have a stuvac week and exam week. I have only five weeks left. Where has the year gone?