Monday, March 2, 2009

Focus on Finishing

Anyone else currently forcing themselves to focus on finishing any languishing UFOs in sight around the house? My "Sock Drawer of Shame" continues to grow, and I have two unfinished sweaters who want to be worn sooner rather than later! (Wild Apple for me-- or perhaps my mom since she won't stop asking for a Turquoise Light Bohus sweater, Patrick for my brother.)
Hopefully by the end of March I'll have a few finished FOs. To get things started, here's the first one:
Last fall I started a pair of super simple socks at the same time. They were knit with koigu purchased from the Yarnery about three years ago. I used 2 US1 (2.25mm) k.p. circs with Cookie A's fabulous and free pattern at knitty.com: Monkey. (Yes, again!) The pattern was modified by knitting the purls, and changing YOs to M1s.
...and, they were too small. The results above were frogged in December.
I ripped back to the ribbing, and changed the M1s to YOs. This minor change gave me enough stretch to pop these tubes over my high instep. In retrospect, I'm really happy that I had to rip, because I just love the pooling results:

Now, I thought these were pretty short socks. Apparently Wollmeise sock yarn has really spoiled me with 510-575 yards/skein. Koigu only has 175yds/skein - thus a total of 350 for this pair. Right as I was decreasing I ran out of yarn! After a little stash diving I found a skein of dark brown koigu just for the tips of the toes.Perhaps this is a little silly, but I love knitting socks that match your lovely, well-worn shoes:

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So, now I'm finishing another pair of koigu socks - this time from last spring!

4 comments:

Karen S, Lykkefanten said...

They are beautiful! And I love that they match your shoes ;)
I have a few skeins of koigu and I'm nerveous about that "shortage", so I think I'll start toe up for a change! Just to be safe!

Guinifer said...

The color really is different in the two sets of photos. I really love the Koigu color, but the yarn is twisted so tight it hurts my fingers. It made for a gorgeous Monkey! Have you pre-ordered Cookie's book?

Kay-From the Back Yard said...

I do like the way those socks turned out! I lament the short yardage some sock yarns provide, too.

twinsetellen said...

The pooling looks like light on the water - very lovely! (if the water were burgundy instead of blue)