monkeying around

A few days ago, I finished my Monkey Socks.  They were quite fun to make, and I rather like the way the colors worked out.  These happen to be the socks I wore while sailing - and while my feet and legs got damp, my feet were never cold, so I consider them to be a triumph.  These are the same socks I was working on in the post about heels.

Perry helped.

Socks, prior to being washed and blocked.

Sock, after being washed and blocked and dried.

These socks were much more fun than another pair that I completed recently.  The Creta Lace socks drove me crazy.  The yarn I used was super slippery and tended to split easily.  The pattern, while very simple and straightforward, was somehow extremely difficult for me to keep track of.  Part of it was that there are 5 repeats of the pattern around the leg of the sock (the pattern calls for knitting on 3 needles, I found it marginally easier on 4) so there was no nice easy division of the pattern.  Part of it was that the pattern shifts back and forth by one stitch every other row... and somehow I was never quite able to figure out which direction I was shifted.  I actually got so frustrated with it that I ripped the whole thing out once and let it sit for several weeks before trying again.  The second attempt was much more successful and I made myself finish.

On the upside, though, the socks are super comfortable, very soft, and quite pretty.  They are a little saggy, but that's better than being too small to wear :-)  I also have over 2 balls of this yarn left... the pattern calls for 3 balls of yarn, and I didn't even use up one whole ball.  I'll have to figure out something (simpler) to make with it :-)