One of my favourite episodes of Kojak comes in Season 3 and has the title “How cruel the frost, how bright the stars” which I feel must be a quote from a poem, but I can’t find any evidence to support this theory. It is a Christmas episode – always my favourites – and follows several criminal activities taking place on Christmas Eve whilst the detectives try to enjoy the traditions of the season. There’s snow, and dancing, sassy heroines, clean-cut heroes, all the trappings of a festive fantasy. None of which has any relevance at all to this post, except that I’ve filched the title.

You’re probably also wondering why I’m posting on a Tuesday and the answer is that I feel like putting up a little post each day this week, mainly to track the progress on my sock.

It took me all of 90 minutes to rip out the textured part of my Popeye Sock and re-knit to the same point in stocking stitch. The colours in the wool are now chiming happy little melodies in my soul as they pop up on the needles, and I can admire each individual run of stitches as well as the larger swathes that spiral around the sock. This does have a cosmic feel to it reminiscent of the gaseous swirls and individual stars in a nebula. Charley at Noodle Soup Yarns did a good job in naming this one Vivid Firmament.

This sock is now exactly the type of knitting I enjoy most and I think I need to remind myself of that whenever I fall prey to external influences and allow myself to think that I ought to be trying something different. I still like a nice bit of texture on a larger item, but my socks are things of joy to me and I just want them smooth and colourful.

Let’s see what progress has been made by tomorrow.