A Shot In The Dark

b-52 sock by yours truly
schachenmayr nomotta regia uni solid 4-ply in
'borke', 'natur' and 'jaffa'

I believe it's about time a classic shot drink was immortalised in sock form, and the B-52 is perfect for the job!  Basically a layered shot cocktail comprising of coffee liqueur, Irish cream liqueur, and an orange liqueur, this little devil should, when prepared properly, separate into 3 distinct layers.  The B-52 Sock has layers, too - 3 cabled layers of stylised coffee beans, Irish knots, and orange segments running in nearly worked striped from a toe-up cast-on, up the foot and onto the leg, with an afterthought heel and round toe.

the top layer - orange liqueur - stylised  orange segments

the middle layer - irish cream liqueur - a simple irish knot

the bottom layer - coffee liqueur - stylised coffee bean

The cuff gives you two options - the first gives you a ribbed cuff that carries the pretty cabled separator up to the top, and the second is inspired by the Flaming B-52, where the top layer of the shot is ignited.  (If you wanted to truly make a Flaming B-52, you could add blue to the mix, as the flame burns blue!)  Both are equally suitable to be the top to such cute socks!

Of course, you don't need to stich to these three colours - there are many variations of the B-52 to inspire your colour choice, including (and here I quote Mr Wikipedia):

B-51: a B52 with hazlenut liqueur rather than orange liqueur.

B-52 with Bomb Bay Doors: A B52 with Bombay gin.

B-52 in the Desert, or a B-52 with a Mexican Tailgunner: a B-52 with tequila rather than Irish cream.

B-52 with a Full Payload: a B-52 with a 4th layer of hazelnut liqueur and a 5th layer of rum lit on fire.

B-52: a B52 with Sambuca rather than Irish cream.

B-54 - a B-52 with almond liqueur in place of orange liqueur.

B-55: a B-52 with absinthe rather than orange liqueur - also know as the B-52 Gunship

B57: a B-52 with peppermint schnapps instead of Irish cream..

And if that's all too much, then how about one colour throughout?  One of my testers made the whole sock in one colour, which adds a real wow factor to the cable designs themselves!  So really, the options are endless!

You can see all the other versions HERE, which links to the main pattern page on Ravelry, or alternatively you buy it by clicking on the button below which takes you straight to paypal!

And the price?  You can get this gorgeousness for only €3 (£2.57, $3.88).  Go on!  You know you need to!

Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire...

Jack Frost slurping at my Irish Coffee...

I don't know about you, but I sometimes feel that barmen are a little furtive when making an Irish Coffee... whether it's to make sure no-one sees their super-secret method of making it, or to make sure no-one sees their panic in trying to make sure the coffee and cream stay separated, who's to tell?  What I can say is that I am a fan of their end product!  I'm also a fan of the 'Baby Guinness' which in fact has nothing to do with Guinness at all, but is in fact a portion of coffee liqueur poured in to a shot glass then topped with a layer of Irish cream liqueur!  I happily class that as an Irish Coffee, too!

Inspired by warm cabled jerseys, roaring pub fireplaces on a frosty evening, and a snifter of Irish whiskey, this is a cream-liqueur-cuff-down, heel-flapped sock, with a coffee-bean cable leg, cosy enough to stave off the harshest of Winter chills!

Unlike the traditional bottom-up method of making an Irish Coffee, we start at the top with an Irish cream liqueur cabled cuff:

The cuff* is actually knit flat from a provisional cast-on, then the edges are grafted together (I used kitchener stitch) after the stitches for the ribbing section are picked up along the edge.  It sounds complicated, but it isn't at all, and makes for a very cool-looking (or should that be 'warm-looking') cuff.

Then follows the toasty coffee-bean cable leg... Truly delicious - I love how this yarn* pools in a way to create different flavour beans!  

And talking of beans - they come in a righ variety of colours!  Check out the Wikipedia page on Coffee roasting for some fabulous examples from greens and yellows to almost black!  Plus the coffee berry itself is a delicious pinky-red colour!

The heel-flap is actually a simple 'double' Eye of Partridge with the main and contrasting colours alternating every 2 rows.  I affectionately call this my Curdled Heel-Flap, because it looks like my attempts at making Irish Coffees for myself.  (I can never get them to layer like the professionals - they either mix for plain a boozy coffee, or separate completely, looking not unlike the example below!) You could, however, claim that the heel-flap represents the sugar grains you need to add to keep the layers separate!

The foot continues the with Coffee-Bean cable, then moves on to a plain toe.  A deliciously warm way to keep your tootsies cosy this Winter!

You can buy this warm and boozy sock pattern for $4.00 (€3.00, £2.58, A$4.12, ¥310) by clicking on this link:

and you can find the Ravelry pattern page HERE.

Go on!  You know you want to! ;-)

*BBKnits Prima Superwash Merino Nylon in colourway 'Innocence'

**Zitron Trekking XXL colourway 420

Send in the clowns

Don't bother, they're here...

CoCo

Hmm... I'm not sure. I think I like Dame Coco. I wasn't sure that the yarn combo would work and I'm trying to ignore the mistakes I made, but I think I like her... I like her more than I did when I took the last photos of her, that's for sure. She has been on her very best behaviour and the last 4 repeats or so passed in a haze of perfection. (The chocolate offerings appeased the Cable Deities, it seems.) It's amazing what differences nice lighting, suitable accessories and proper finishing touches make, though. The trellis cabling was, in the end, rather exhilarating to do, (AFTER my many mistakes already documented in detail...) and although the effect isn't *quite* the same as the original design by Janine le Cras, who has a divine royal purple bag as her prototype, my version hopefully won't make the recipient want to hurl...!

The needles aren't empty, though. Brigid II number 2 is off and running (my GAWD - I've managed to escape SSS again!!) and there's a few bits and bobs I'm toying with. I'm also still working on Aoife, which is a bolero jacket with loads of cable detail (mmm - cables) and is slowly coming on - it's my first item of apparel that I've started, so I have no idea how long it will take.
I was hoping that maybe I'd have it done to wear for my next concerts in May, but I don't think that's going to happen. I have the most amazing dress that I am sure it will go amazingly with, but unless I'm knitting 24/7 for the next 2 weeks, I suspect it will have to wait... Here's the dress, by the way, although you have to imagine it *somewhat* wider! I loves it, I do! Think it's diva enough for a Mahler orchestral song-cycle?! I can't wait for that at all - 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen' which roughly translates as 'Songs of a Wayfarer'... ish! (Yeah, yeah - I know - it's a mezzo song cycle, but who really thinks writing pianissimo top g-sharps is being kind to the lower voice?!) It's my first foray out of baroque and classical music (by classical I mean the music of the classical era - roughly 1750 to 1820) for a LONG time and that in itself is a little scary, but I guess you have to go where your instrument dictates, and my voice is getting bigger now, although I never sounded like a boy soprano even in my teeniest-of-voiced days... One day I'll tell you about some of the *interesting* things I've been told/taught and advised...
 And I changed my major from piano to singing 'cos I thought singing was an easier option! Hah, and yay, verily I say unto thee - HAH!

H is for...

Horloges.

Clocks. I like clocks. I'm a fan of clocks. I have 8 or so dotted around at home, not including the ones I still have packed somewhere... None, though, like this effort which can be found in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. (The museum itself is a converted train station.) Now there's a clock-lovers paradise... You can also find this there:

You can just about make out the silhouettes of people walking on the framework behind the clock, which turns into this when you get closer (or use a telephoto lens!):

You also get the opportunity to see one of the massive clocks from the other side, as it were.

My sister is the silhouette on the right, taking photos through the clock hands! I took my own from the same spot:

You can see Montmartre right at the back and the Big Wheel at the Place de la Concorde, next to the big hand. (Now that was very weird to type - it felt like I was presenting a children's programme for a second!! "And when the big hand points down, it's...")
 Hmm, and talking of children's programmes... (Here comes a clumsy link...)
 Well, the need for a child's/idiot's guide to cabling is as strong as ever... I'm muddling through the Coco bag - trellis cabling all the way. (I must add that it's a gorgeous pattern - 'tis merely mine own self that's messing it up!) I gave a *brief* description of my 1st pattern repeat fumbles in an earlier post. After 3 repeats I discovered that there were errata to the pattern that I should have read. D'oh! It certainly made sense as to why the Cable Faeries were regarding me with such disdain. Then I only did 4 rows of the pattern repeat when I thought I have done all 8 and started the repeat again... Some more repeats in, I discovered that there was a T4B or a T4F or some such equation that had a 'K2 from needle, then P2 from the cable' around the wrong way on the pattern itself. Or something along those lines... The knitting is in the living room and I'm in the computer room and I can't be arsed to go and check. Of course, after I figured that last bit out, I was feeling very pleased with myself and promptly made a hold back instead of hold forward mistake. Across a WHOLE row.
*smacks self on forehead*
Am I feeling stupid enough to post a picture? Damn right I am... as a warning to others.

CABLE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!