08 October, 2011

Socktoberfest 2011

It's Socktoberfest once again. And I gotta tell you all, this lady is socked out. I lost my sock-knitting mojo about a month and a half into the Plunge, way back in August, and it hasn't come back. I don't know where it went, but I'm thinking it has something to do with this:



This is a sock I was knitting for my best friend Carol, who always gets a pair of socks for her birthday. Carol loves blue, and for three years I knit her blue socks. I was sick of blue socks. But Carol is also a Michigan State fan (aren't all sane Michiganders?), so I thought that I would stray from the blue theme and knit her a pair of green and white socks. I purchased a skein of Tailgate Sock from Knitters Brewing Company, and I chose to knit Skew. Because what could be more perfect than a pair of green and white striped socks for a Michigan State fan? Right?

Yeah, right.

Do you see stripes in the socks above? Because I sure don't. I see flashing and pooling, and I abhor flashing and pooling. But others don't, and the flashing and pooling wasn't the worst I'd seen, so I knit on. I finished the first sock (which included reknitting the heel and part of the leg to get them to fit) and started the second.

And then the yarn did something completely dastardly:



REALLY? REALLY? YOU'RE ALREADY HORRIBLE POOLING YARN, AND YOU CANNOT BE COURTEOUS ENOUGH TO THIS KNITTER TO AT LEAST POOL THE SAME WAY ON BOTH SOCKS?

And what's worse, I can't believe I wasted time knitting this much of the foot when I knew two inches back that it was going to be horrible. The yarn is taking a time-out in the UFO box, and it may never ever get to come out to play again.

In the meantime, I have ordered more yarn and am working on plain vanilla socks with afterthought heels.



The yarn is String Theory Colorworks Entanglement Self-Striping in the Chlorophyll colorway. Sigh. Isn't it perfect? Look at those orderly stripes, marching right up that leg with Spartan pride. Go right through for MSU. Watch the stripes keep growing.

One sock is done, and that's where I stopped. Because despite the fact that I love my alma mater, I am just that sick of knitting green and white yarn. I think if I can gut it out, though, I will finish them by the end of Socktober.

I don't want to rain on anyone else's Socktoberfest parade, though. Natasha was so nice to make a new badge for Socktoberfest, which I promptly stole for my sidebar. Go steal it. She wants you to. Cast on some socks if you haven't already. And if you have, post a comment to tell me what you are knitting!

1 comment:

SusanB-knits said...

I've had that horrible pooling happen to me too! I never have figured out why. One theory is to knit one sock from the middle and one from the outside. It didn't work for me either. So I don't have an answer. Let me know if you find an answer.
I love String Theory Colorworks!