Socks and a History Fun Fact!

Socktoberfest is finally in full swing here at Casa Specs. I should be working on my brother's sweater (last seen on the blog on over a month ago), but the yarn I bought at Loop was talking to me from the yarn bin. And the word it kept whispering was Pomatomus. Isn't it beautiful? Even though the yarn is leaving black dye all over my fingers, I can't put this sock down. I love watching the colors of the Claudia's Handpainted change and seeing the arch of the waves develop. Also making me happy today: it's sweater weather! This means that I dig out my old Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater; one that I made years ago from some WalMart yarn (that's held up remarkably well, all things considered). The temperature is in the 60s (Finally! I've been waiting a long time for Fall to come to Tennessee), the skies are deep and blue, and the leaves are the perfect splashy colors that I've been seeing on blogs from the Northeast. I love driving around and seeing bright patches of color in the mountains. Even going to Target is beautiful. And now for today's History Fun Fact. Did you know that the sails of Viking ships were made of wool? Well, they were! And to keep the sails from doing what all wool does in damp environments (like, say, the entire northwest coast of Europe), the tightly woven fabric was rubbed and saturated with sheep's fat. Class dismissed.