Hello!!

Autumn!  September’s End!  We just got back from camping on the Fundy Shore and it was beautiful!  On Friday night, we drove over the bridge to Nova Scotia and set up our tent overlooking the Minas Basin (i.e. mud during low tide), multiple islands in the mud (the tide also rises!) and the quickly disappearing sun.  The sound of rushing water lulled us to sleep as the tides came in and we woke to dew, mist and a day of hiking stretched before us.  I heartily believe, the dream!

During our hike in Economy, NS, I packed up all of the Elf Pine socks that I knit over the past couple of months to take some shots with the lush moss and forests. We live in a comparably tiny part of Canada, but the spots to explore and camp honestly feel endless.  I am constantly amazed at how unique and beautiful this little corner of the country is.  We drove down a rough dirt road, lined with wild blueberry fields to Kenomee Canyon or otherwise known as the Economy River Wilderness Area.  It is a very long hike so we spent the morning by the waterfall, climbing along the escarpment, talking about coming back to actually hike and do backwoods camping.  Next time, I’ll have my own pair of Elf Pine Socks and a sleeping bag that envelopes my head :D.

Some fallen trees, wearing moss coats hosted us with our knit socks 🙂  We sat with them, took some pictures and left only footprints.  I felt like the forest perfectly embodied the socks that I knit and designed over the summer.  Lush moss and towering trees.  I made these with the hope that all who wears or makes them, feels that sense of a deep mysterious forest and a haven where tea, fire and warmth greets them.

The Elf Pine socks are knit with lettlopi (if you know me, this won’t surprise you in the slightest!).  Lettlopi is a lighter Icelandic wool.  Although socks are typically knit using a wool or yarn with 20 per cent nylon for durability, I wanted to make these not necessarily for extreme use but rather for a cold lounging by the fire, sipping tea, vegging out kind of day.  Or in contrast, a fall camping day, where you just really need something warm.  Due to the makeup of Lettlopi, they will also likely felt at the bottom.  So I really advise for these to be slippers and for home use.

The pattern, which is now up on our Etsy Site, is as simple and straight forward as I could possibly make it.  I have been intimidated by socks for quite a few years and have only within the past year or two, really grasped how to make them without relying on a pattern.  I have had so many knitting patterns in my head but have never found them to actually exist.  To me, this is so strange because they are all so simple and basic.  I often am digging through my mom’s patterns from the 1960’s to find basic patterns!  The Elf Pine socks are a culmination of my sock knowledge and technique 🙂 x

My Mom’s Garden this summer

Foraging our days away

I hope you enjoy the photographs and knitting these little slipper style socks!  I have become a little bit addicted to them and have started taking lopi from my sweater designated stash to knit some more Elf Pine Socks!  I love combining lopi, the colours are so deep and earthy that I am compelled to just continue to create and create!   I can not wait to see the colours that you come up with 🙂 ❤

I still have so much to discuss, to share!  This year has been a blur of immense change and suddenly, I feel at complete peace and happiness at where we are.  Last weekend, we were haunting the streets of Dublin, Ireland and now the forests in Nova Scotia.  I have to admit, although I know one is more socially acceptable and expected (a city), the other just speaks to me and leaves me… happy.  Content.  I feel at peace hiking, reading by a campfire, knitting little elf booties! Life can be complicated when we let other’s expectations sway us but is so simple if we just give in to what really makes us happy!