Though the blog posting is very late, my March installment of the year of socks was done pretty much on time.
Pattern: Anastasia socks, from the incomparable MintyFresh
Yarn: Sunshine Soft Sock Yarn, in colorway “Emerald Isle”
Time Elapsed: A couple of weeks, including a major rip-out. Pregnancy brain strikes–these are actually very quick.
Notes/Modifications: Given the colorway of these socks, and the fact that I started them at an Irish pub, I have been calling them my St. Patrick’s Day socks. It’s fitting, don’t you think?
About the only major modification I made to the pattern was to use Wendy’s fantastic toe-up gusset pattern for the heel.
I suspect I could have gotten away with doing even more increases, but these are SO comfortable, and my ankles are so swollen already, I can’t be too sure. Wendy’s pattern is saving toe-up socks for me–only with the comparison did I realize how poorly short-row heels fit my foot.
I also added a few stitches to the pattern, going to 66 from 60 since I have a wide foot. This was trivial to do–I just added a stitch or two between the spiraled eyelets. And that’s it for modifications. The pattern is just fantastic–I love the way the eyelets add interest without interfering with the yarn’s variegation. I’m likely to use it again.
The yarn is also gorgeous and soft, and beautifully dyed. Dani is really a wonder woman, because I’m about the hardest possible person to please in terms of variegation. But this yarn was perfect: evenly blended color that was so resistant to pooling I could even get through the gussets without splotches. The only thing I’d do differently next time is knit the yarn on size 0 needles instead of size 1, but your mileage may vary since I like a really firm fabric for my socks. (I find that the firmer the fabric, the longer the sock life.)
There were some predictable troubles with carrying out our photo shoot:
Jacob likes to play around with all of my socks, but these seem to be a particular favorite. Probably because they’re softer than clouds made of concentrated kitten fluff? (Seriously, I can’t think of any sock yarn I’ve used that feels more wonderful against my feet. I’ll let you know how it wears, as time goes on.)
There were also a bevy of unpredicted troubles with the photo shoot. Well, one problem, really, manifested in several different ways.
I wonder how long it will be before I need to enlist assistance?
Amy Herzog Designs