Pomatomi

They’re done!

Pomatomi

The specs:
Pattern: Pomatomus
Designer: Cookie A.
Source: Knitty, Winter 2005.
Yarn: FlyDesigns Monarch, Blue Grass colorway
Needles: US1.5 bamboo dpns
Comments: Cookie A. is a freakin’ genius. The socks are gorgeous, and I love certain little details she includes, like telling you to pick up an extra stitch on each side where the heel flap meets the instep when knitting the gussets, and telling you to knit those picked up gusset stitches through the back loop on the first round. It’s little things like that that leave you with fantastic looking socks and you might not even know why. (Unless, of course, you already know those tricks.) But, let me tell you, I could go for a good long while now without knitting any more 1×1 twisted rib. Crikey.

The yarn reminded me a lot of Socks that Rock Lightweight, very bouncy and stretchy. My stockinette stitches twist a little bit, looking more like -/ than like the usual / – something I also get with STR. And I really could have used a little more yardage. Not a lot, but even one more yard would have helped! I had mere inches left after Kitchener stitching, and I shortened the toes slightly from the pattern. This is why people knit socks toe-up, I know. The color is fantastic. It’s all deep and rich and the blue and green blend so very nicely, rather than pooling or flashing. Now, if it would only dip below, say, 80 degrees around here, I’d like to wear my socks.

One Pomatomus, Two Skeins

I finished the first Pomatomus sock while watching Rachel Maddow last night, but a picture will have to wait for the weekend. I manage to finish kitchenering the toe right at the spot I’d marked as the halfway point of the ball. But when I weighed my sock, then weighed the remaining yarn (all on my trusty Weight Watchers scale; at least it’s getting some use), I seem to have used 1 more gram on the sock than I have left.

Here’s the frustrating thing: I think I’d actually prefer a shorter leg. But the idea of ripping out the first sock and doing it all over again fills me with dread. I’d rather knit up the second sock with what’s left and take the chance of having to do the last couple of rounds with a different yarn.

Speaking of yarn (and aren’t we always, really?), Stacy of Tempted Hand Painted Yarns, well, tempted me over Plurk with new colorways of Glam Grrl. I was helpless to resist, I tell you. And then these lovely things showed up on my doorstep a few days later:

Tempted Glam
Red Diamond

Tempted Glam
Destiny

One of these days, I’ll get my hands on some Branded in Glam Grrl. But that day is not today.

Pomatomus in Progress

On Ravelry, there’s a group called Sock Knitters Anonymous, and they’re now in the second year of a challenge known as Sockdown. Every month, there is a theme, and for each pair of qualifying socks completed (cast on during the month and finished by the end of the following month), you get an entry in a drawing for prizes. This month’s theme is (a) knit any pattern in a yarn that is at least 75% orange or (b) knit any Cookie A. pattern in any yarn or (c) knit a mystery sock pattern given to the group over the course of 4 weeks in a yarn that’s at least 75% orange.

This has led to a whole lot of discussion about various yarns and whether they are Orange Enough. A search through my own stash revealed that I have no orange yarn. So, I cast on Pomatomus instead:

Pomatomus in Progress

The yarn is called Monarch, in a colorway called Blue Grass. It’s beautiful. I love it. But it’s pretty much an entire sock in 1×1 twisted rib, with a pattern that I can’t quite make stick in my head, so I have to keep a close eye on the chart. The payoff, though, is a really gorgeous sock.

FO Friday: Frozen Hedera

I’ve been calling these socks “Frozen Hedera”:

Frozen Hedera

Pattern: Hedera, by Cookie A.
Source: Knitty, Spring 2006
Yarn: Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel in “Icicle”, the December club yarn. I love, love, love this yarn. It’s so pretty.
Needles: Brittany Birch DPNs, size US1.5, 5 inches, set of 5
Comments: This pattern was easy to memorize. I printed it out, but then misplaced the hard copy, so I would just check the pattern online at crucial points. I made the larger size for my Flintstone-style feet, and they fit just about perfectly.