At last

Well it's taken me a while (and three season of the west wing) but the poms are done. Ta da:


And I love them! They're like a big warm hug for your feet. And a well timed hug at that, it's just starting to cool down in this part of the world (which also means less natural light, so sorry if the photos are a bit crappy). The clap has made a couple of appearances lately too. God I love this thing. If you haven't made one, do it! Do it now! You won't regret it.


But I digress. Much as I love these socks finished they were a total pain in the patchanga to knit. The pattern was awesome, and the yarn (merino cashmere in forest moss) was lovely and soft (cashmere will do that), but, well, they were a process. The first pair I started I frogged because I just wasn't handling such teeny-tiny double points. These pair were made magic loop, two at once. I wasn't risking the dreaded second sock syndrome. Anyway, I think most of the problem was the needles, which were awful. Awful. They were bamboo circulars and the clasp was not smooth at all. Can someone please save my sanity and tell me where I can get 2.25mm and 2.75mm Addis or something similar? Is there some knittery secret I'm not in on? I've tried all of the usual aussie distributors and none of them seem to have these sizes. Someone please save me from the horror of crappy circular needles.

I shouldn't get too carried away though. In the end it was all worth it. What I really, really love about them is they make my new favourite shoes fit real good ($15, target, bargain.) And I don't know if you can see it in these photos, but they've knit up in a subtle light green/dark green diagonal stripe which I think is wicked.


Cool, no?

Me and my monkey

I don't like mokeys. I had a nasty experience with a bunch of them in Thailand once and had no interest in a repeat performance. Really I'd rather stick a fork in my eye.

Turns out I'm surrounded by them at the moment though.


JD doesn't share my dislike of monkeys. He quite adores them. Particularly these Balinese ones. And especially when they take me by surprise, sabotaging my careful plans to not get within 2m of them, resulting in an involuntary scream of horror. I'm still trying to figure out how my holiday vision of dips in the pool, good books and the odd gin and tonic transgressed repeatedly into fork-in-the-eye monkey visits.

Um, dudes, check out those nipples! OUCH!

They're much nicer in photo form than real life. Unlike these monkeys:


I'll keep these ones in real life. On my feet. The yarn is colinette jitterbug in 'popsicle' (from here). It's pretty good: soft, great colours, good price. It's a bit short on yardage though, I'm glad I've got small feet or there could have been tears.


I don't mind the pooling either. Although I might buy some more and do a basic rib sock to see how it goes. And this is a fantastic pattern, highly recommend it. It's complex enough to keep you interested, but not so difficult you get distracted. It lends itself well to magic loop on (2.5mm) addi's (my first magic loop socks!). I could get used to doing socks on magic loop, it's so much easier than double points.


Maybe not all monkeys are so bad.

Robbed!

Give it up people, I've lost my sock virginity.


Rather surprisingly, these babies have not convinced me of the virtue of sock knitting.

I butchered three pairs of needles to finish these. Three! I kept snapping them, splitting them, bending them. I guess it was my own fault for using wood double points that bare a remarkable similarity to toothpicks, but still, three!


I suffered a terrible case of second sock syndrome. It's a killer that, hey. I had to wear the one completed sock for a while to demonstrate to myself the stunted enjoyment one sock brings a two-footed person. Then I had to keep it on to serve as a stimulus for the need to remedy this unnatural one socked foot situation.

And now here they are. But not on my feet (the tanned, shaved legs thing isn't really my style). You see my mum was visiting over the weekend. And we have the same size feet. And you can see where this is going. The socks were stolen from my clutches about 3 second after natural sock order had been established. Look at them sunning themselves up there! Ungrateful hussies!

All is not lost though. Last week's sock porn is transforming itself into monkey quite quickly. By Magic Loop. I'm enjoying this pattern a lot, I think that the lace pattern really breaks the monotony I got a bit bored with in the Jaywalkers. Maybe there is sock hope for me yet.

Pattern: The omnipresent Jaywalker
Yarn: Lorna's Laces shepherd sock in Gold Hill
Needles: Too many. Most in 2.25mm double points although there was the occasional 2.5mm thrown in when stocks got low.

Now I swear this title was here before this happened, but turns out sock-robbing isn't the only thing on the cards at our place. Our car was broken into by a pretty considerate robber. Yes, that's right. No windows were broken. Nothing was taken. We think the car was locked once he/she/they were finished. Apparently our robber isn't a fan of Radiohead (I actually think OK Computer is a great album, but I digress). All in all, everything you'd look for in a car robber. Thanks!