Real rain ... and the latest socks

We had next to no rain for the whole of April .

Coupled with unseasonably warm weather, everything in the garden is now about three weeks ahead of normal.

Well, the past couple of days have made a difference.

Yesterday, Sunday, it rained pretty much solidly all day.

When we had a bit of rain last week, we took advantage of it, and topped up our garden pond by siphoning off water from our rainwater tanks. The pond looked much better, the frogs and newts had more wet space, and we had half empty tanks.

Yesterday's rain has filled them again, and then they overflowed like mad.

The ground had been made receptive by the rain last week, and the temperatures are much more normal for this time of year. Today it ranged from 4 C to 11 C (40 F to 52F), and felt so much fresher.

Which brings me round to the subject of sock knitting.

When we had the warm weather, I found that I had to think about where I would be during the day, and dress my feet accordingly. The concrete floor in the Art Room makes it cool most of the year. Wearing handknit wool socks seems to work well when I am there.

These latest socks have been a long time in gestation.

I bought the Regia Stretch colour 81(Clown) when I first visited Blackberry Yarns in Mountsorrel. That was not long after it opened, roughly a couple of years ago.

Ian and I made a trip by train to the nearest station, in Sileby, and then walked across the fields, pausing to look at Sileby Mill on the River Soar on the way.

Recently I came across some Skacel Trampoline Stretch colour 239.

I had never heard of it, which, given the multiplicity of available sock yarns, is not too surprising. This has the same fibre compostion: 70% wool/23% nylon/7% polyester (elite).

Alongside one another they don't look too promising:

Both are rather bright, and I don't warm to knitting either of them on their own. Together though, I get the perfect "Liquorice Allsorts" effect:

Now I just want the weather/ArtRoom to stay cool enough for me to get to the end of the boring, slow growing, 3 x 3 rib tops so that I can wear them.