Sarah's Ramblings

FO: Monkey Socks

Oy. I've got a monkey on my back.


But thankfully not anymore!*

Details, yes?

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A., free at Knitty.com.
Yarn: self-dyed KnitPicks Bare fingering weight. Colourway intended: Kaylee. Colourway achieved: Drunken Neon Ibis.
Needles: 2.5 mm . . . circular?!?!
Thoughts:

This pattern really truly is as addicting as they say. It's a simple 11-row repeat which I had memorized by the second repeat, and it takes me forever to memorize these things. It's great for variegated yarn. I've never actually finished a pair of Jaywalkers (I find the fitting difficult), but I have no problem seeing these become the next Jaywalkers.

I doubt I'll order the yarn again. Although it has nylon already, I reinforced the heels and toes with sewing thread because I didn't feel confident this yarn would last. It's very soft and tends to split. It also doesn't feel like it has much of the natural elastic bounce inherent in wool, which would make me nervous about frogging.

I knit the socks on Magic Loop almost by accident, really. Near the top of the first sock, you can see where the yarn has begun to flash, where I was working with 2.25 mm dpns. I was also worried that the lack of bounce I was feeling was due to the needle size, and I couldn't find a set of 2.5 mm dpns. I knew roughly how to use Magic Loop because I'd reverted to it before on short pieces of work like the sleeves of my Glampyre boobholder, where I didn't have the right size dpns but was able to add cords to my Denise needles to make them long enough for Magic Loop. I'd never used it for a longer period, and I found I like the technique. It makes it feel like it's going faster, because naturally you work faster with less stopping at joints between needles. I'll never abandon dpns, but I like Magic Loop more than I expected.

It's already been established that Cookie A. is just a straight-out genius. The day I finished these socks, I started straight away on a new pair:


Yup, it's going to be Hedera! I've always thought these socks were a bit overlooked - unjustly since they're just plain gorgeous, and even easier than Monkeys! Plus, I'd imagine that these babies would fit more people than the Monkey pattern, since it's offered in two separate sizes and is super stretchy. I don't have any good pictures of the lace stretched out, so let's just pretend I'm drawing out the suspense until they're done.

Speaking of which, I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow (which is actually today, so I have to finish this up soon). I'll be gone on an Alaskan cruise until the 24th, and will be bringing my laptop but can't guarantee I'll have internet access. If I maintain radio silence for a while, you'll know that's why. I hope to finish off my Hederas, as well as an Unjustly Overdue Super Secret Project.



*Listen, I know you guys are quite possibly getting sick of all these photos I take in this lavender bush. But I'm just now trying to take photos according to the colour spectrum, and green and purple look good against a lot of stuff, like ^red and orange^. If you are getting sick of them, just bear in mind I'm trying to improve, and it could always be worse.

posted by Sarah @ 2:44 AM