One Sock, Three Sock, Red Sock, Blue Socks!

Whole lotta socks goin' on 'round here!

First, I finished a simple cuffed sock using KnitPicks Sock Memories in Flower Power.



I think it came out super cute! I can't wait to get sock #2 finished! The pattern is simple. I've used it enough times I have it memorized. :) You can get it here at Bernat.com.

I have also started a pair of cabled socks for the Knitting Olympics. More info on the Knitting Olympics is at Yarn Harlot's Blog. And more here. I'm making the Baby Cable Rib socks from Charlene Schurch's book Spectacular Knitted Socks. This is the first time I've tried any sort of a more challenging sock than ones like the simple Bernat sock pattern I used above. The Knitting Olympics I thought was a perfect excuse for me to branch out into higher realms of sock knitting Nirvana.

I'm knitting both socks at the same time so that I don't have to fight with Second Sock Syndrome. Ever had an attack of Triple S? That's when you finish one sock and it looks great.....but then you discover you really don't want to start all over again to make the 2nd sock. There must be plenty of lonely matchless knitted socks in the world. Sad victims of chronic Triple S, or just "sssssssssss'' for short. Boo and Hiss at ssssssss! So I decided to pool all the #2 dpns I could find to knit both socks at the same time. Death Knell for SSS!!!



No great speed knitting on my part yet. I do have the first little bit of k2, p2 ribbing mostly done on both of them. I'm going on a weekend trip this weekend where I will have some good knitting time, so hopefully when I come back, I can show some actual cabling being done on these cabled socks. lol. *Crossing Fingers*

I'm not using any fancy sock yarn for my olympic socks. It's Magic Stripes in Sea Blue. It's fingering weight and a mix of wool and nylon. At first it had a noticeable acrylic-y plastic sorta feel to it....but now that I have a few rows done, it doesn't seem that bad, and the colors are really pretty. I'm reserving my judgement on Magic Stripes until I have the socks done and wear them though....if they breathe and stretch relatively well, I will definitely be using MS again!

I ventured to area craft stores this past weekend on the lookout for sock yarn -- and found NONE. I was sorely disappointed. First I went to my local LYS....they had some, but none that I really wanted to try. Ugly colors. So then I went to Hobby Lobby -- no sock yarn besides one or two orphan skeins of Bernat Sox. I love the colors of Bernat Sox, but the one pair of socks I knitted from it are so hot that I can't stand to wear them unless I'm absolutely freezing cold. It's like wearing a mini nuclear reactor on my feet. Ugh. No breathing at all. Too acrylic-y. So, I was miffed at there being no sock yarn. I looked at the other yarn they had -- interesting nobby funky looking yarns. But.....they wanted upwards of $8-10 a skein for some. I'm not going to pay that price range for acrylic. Acrylic/natural fiber mix maybe. But not straight faux naturale. Nope. Not doing it. So, then we ventured over to Michael's, where I thought they would surely have some sock yarn. They had NONE. I even tried Walmart. NONE. Fun Fur in every mix of rainbow color....(looked like all the Muppets had been murdered).....but not one skein of sock yarn.

See a pattern here??? Plethora-of-Acrylic everywhere...including an acrylic that looked a lot like Noro Kureyon but made out of some polyethylnobaabaa sorta stuff. Faux wool!!! Ewwwwwww! I was insulted. But you know....polyethylnobaabaa can still be felted. With a blow torch.

So, I poo-poo'ed Michael's and Walmart's yarn too. Bought myself some new paint brushes, but I left yarnless. Someone on a email list I belong to said that Michael's stores were paring down their yarn sections to emphasize scrapbooking and other hobbies. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. All I wanted was my*&^%$&# sock yarn fix. But NOOOOOOOO. I'm still feeling huffy and snippy about it. Midol needs to make a medication for PKS (Pissed-off knitter syndrome).

That's allright.....I can order awesome sock yarn from Knitpicks online. Much better than Hobby Lobby or Michael's would have had. And I didn't want polyethylnobaabaa sock yarn anyway.

TTFN!!