Sock part deux

I haven't had a lot of time to knit or blog due to my stupid life of busy-ness. My sweaters are languishing, actually I think I can hear them crying. Sigh. My kingdom for some free time.




I did finish something. I finished the socks. The socks, they are finished. First complete pair of socks...done. I actually finished the socks a while ago but haven't posted about them because I am slack like that.



All in all I am happy with the socks although it has been too warm to wear them because, Man, these socks are warm. They are very warm. They are made with yarn created to with stand frigid Norwegian winters. They are a raging inferno of burning woolyness on my feet, therefore I probably won't be able to wear them until January, or perhaps I'll just wear them instead of turning the heat on this winter. Mmm toasty. In other news, I haven't blocked or washed them yet so who knows what horrors could be in store. Perhaps they will grow to the size of..a giant warm thing. Maybe a set of matching sleeping bags. Also I realize that I made one slightly bigger than the other which is ok, because one of my feet is slighty bigger than the other so everybody wins.



And they even fit my feet. hooray!!


In celebration of finishing my first pair of socks I bought very expensive sock yarn. I waffled for a long time about which very expensive sock yarn to get but finally decided on Fleece artist seawool.


Cat sold separately

The yarn came with a free "Bordello socks" pattern which seems quite similar to the Jaywalkers pattern. I decided not to make this particular pattern to the fact that it called for a set of five 3.00 dpns and I only have four, and the pattern was written specifically for 5 dpns which kind of offended me. I could have done it on four using the power of math but after reading some reviews of the pattern on the internets, I learned that it is apparently not very stretchy and frankly if I want something non-stretchy to wear on my feet, I'll just wear shoes.

In any case, after casting on three different socks I decided on the Seduction Socks by Anne Budd. The pattern is fairly easy to knit and the pattern is easy to memorize but complex enough to keep my interested. I decided not to use the Old Norwegaian cast on though, out of lazyness, plus I'm not in love with the way it looks in this yarn. I am worried I might not have enough yarn though. Although I have the specified amount, I am a loose knitter and I decided to do an extra pattern repeat. Hopefully the fact that my feet are tiny will work in my favour. If not I'll have to find a less expensive but complimentary yarn to do the toes in.



Cat for display purposes only and not included with pattern

Anyway what do I think of this yarn? Well the coulours are nice and its fine to work with although slightly squeaky (I'm guessing that's the seaweed) I do find that its diffeicult to get a good tension with this yarn. Jacquie blamed my crappy $3.00 metal Mary Maxim needles, but I usually get better tension with metal than I do with bamboo, so I'm inclined to blame the yarn...and the pattern. I think this yarn is a bit too slippery to use with such a twisty stitch pattern. If the socks werre made in a "grabbier" yarn I probably wouldnt be having this issue. In any case, looking at other versions of the socks on Ravelry, it seems that other people are having the same issue.



check out my tension, babies

The other thing is that you sort of lose the stitch pattern due to the striping of the yarn and the Jaywalkers or Bordello socks pattern would be a better choice for showing off the stripes, then again that's my own fault for choosing this particular pattern.



where's my stitch pattern at?

In any case, I'm not sure that I love this as a sock yarn, it's nice to work with but a little thick. I actually can't imagine a non stretchy sock out of the stuff..it really would be a shoe or a torture device. For the next pair, I may go back to the cheaper Norwegian stuff because those Norwegians do know socks.