Fiftieth Pair

They are finished! Finally. It took 10 months of mostly ignoring them. I think it’s kind of appropriate that they are my 50th pair of socks. I present another FO:

Pomatomus Socks

Begun: May 19, 2006 (dyeing)
Completed: March 6, 2007

Yarn: 2 balls Sisu, 80% wool/20% nylon, 160 m = 50 g, white hand-dyepainted in greens/browns/oranges/turquoise
Needles: 2.25 mm, begun with a mishmash of wood and bamboo but completed with lovely Clover Takumi bamboo 5" dpns

Pattern: Pomatomus Socks from Knitty Winter 05, by Cookie A.
Mods: none except that I used different yarn
Comments: Cookie says the Pomatomus species of blue fish are “somewhat vicious, with sharp teeth, powerful jaws and a cannibalistic tendency.” Yep. Vicious. That’s exactly what these socks were. However the results are actually very nice. They look kinda silly without feet in them however:


But much better on:


Though notice the orange and brown pooling on the instep, hey? Even my rather random handpaints can’t avoid some of that effect. I’m thinking that the colours are a bit too contrasty and obscure the scaly pattern that I worked so darned hard to achieve. Sigh. Ya live and learn.

Once I was almost finished the Po-whatzis socks, I could finally “read” the pattern and work it without checking the chart constantly. Hmpf. Took me long enough, didn’t it? But I will take much of the blame in not working on these enough to get it embedded in my brain sooner. In retrospect I should have just stuck with them once I’d started last May. Yeah, that long ago. I’m sure you have crafty items yourself that have wandered off in disgust. I’m not giving these away because they took way too long and with too much struggle. Nobody but me is worth it! Or maybe the socks aren’t worth anybody else? Whatever. I’m keeping them.

Meanwhile (of course) I started the Cherry Leaf Shawl from VKT. I’m having a grand case of “just one more row” with these. The chart is very easy to memorize and the lace is somewhat more dense than the Swallowtail Shawl even though I’m using the same yarn and the same needles. There are larger areas of plain knitting and less yarn-overs in this pattern. I’ll cross the dilemma of the edging when I get to it. I actually like the look of the chart as given with its double yarn-overs so I just may use that. And maybe a little something more at the top edge. I may have to work more pattern repeats to get the size big enough because I’m using finer yarn and smaller needles than the pattern calls for. This is my handpainted cash-merino laceweight yarn and 3.5 mm Clover bamboo 24” circs.

I was going to review the Lace Style book for you but it’ll have to wait. There’s just so much I want to say and I have to figure out the right way to say it without it becoming the Encyclopedia Britannica or something.

The flu is finally getting a bit better, thanks for asking. I just might live. I only spent half the day in bed today. And I actually got the dishes washed this morning. Whoo-hoo. However, I cancelled my weekend plans because I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be up for much. Think good healing thoughts for me, ok? Happily for me, Intermediate Spinning is cancelled this evening. Only one person signed up. I’m still not well enough to venture out anyway so it’s just as well.