Sunday, November 20, 2011

And So I Do

I predicted in the last post that, since I loved the singles and wasn't so crazy about the skeined yarn, that I would love the knitted product.  It's been really difficult to get a picture that really shows the color in the socks.  For some reason, the striping showed much more definitely in the picture than in real life but here goes:


The first two photos were outside and the third inside.  The last shows the colors a little better but makes the poor little sock look deformed because it's propped up against the skein.  Anyway, you get the idea.

This was an unusual yarn for me to use for socks, being a little bit thicker than I would normally use and being a littel more tightly spun than I've used in the past.  The colors remind me of the beautiful colors in the Lion Brand Homespun yarns, the one every beginner buys because the colors are so rich and beautiful and which every knitter who's ever worked with it curses because it's so splitty and hard to knit with.  It has those same rich colors that blend so wonderfully.

Fortunately it's much better to work with.  I was worried at first that I wouldn't have enough for a whole pair of socks.  Now, I know there are ways to split the yarn out so you work all you've got for one and have the same amount for the second.  Too fiddly.  And you can knit them from the toe up, two at a time, and know you're going to have enough.  I don't like knitting toe up socks. 

I began by making the cuff really short thinking that I could always add to the top, if needed.  But someone at knit night commented she thought they were too short (and I agreed, although I didn't admit it at the time).  But as soon as I got home, I ripped out what I'd done on the heel (fortunately just the heel flap) and made the cuff a little longer.  As someone else said that night, you can always make the toes a different color and who will know. 

Now I"m at the stage, having finished the heel in the second sock, that I think I'm going to have plenty of yarn.  But I know enough about life to know that by the time I get to the middle of the foot that I'm going to start monitoring my remaining yarn and be convinced that I'll never be able to finish.  So I choose to live in the denial of the moment and believe that I'll have plenty of yarn left over.

In fact, maybe I'll have enough for mittens!