Twinknit

The back story:

Many of you may have guessed from the title of the blog that I’m a twin (I’ve talked about this before). I have twin brother named Adam (the lovely blonde in the photo at the top of this page. For better or for worse, I have always been a brunette). I could blame my own status as fraternal twin for my love of all things fraternal (yes, I did freak out about these socks when they came out. I will be knitting them. I will!).

I also lived in Vienna for a year about eight years ago (this was when I was an opera singer. Another story for another time). I *loved* Vienna — the music, the culture, the coffee, the art–and you can’t live in and love Vienna without having an opinion on one of her native artists, Freidensreich Hundertwasser. I love Hundertwasser (who couldn’t love a guy who changed his first name to mean “Peace land”?). I love his use of color (quilting inspiration? I think so) and his wacky approach to all things conventional (he was an architect, but used no right angles in his buildings. Rumor has it they are a pain in the ass to live in). So when my mom found the Zwerger Opal sock yarns inspired by Hundertwasser paintings, she knew I would love it and bought me one.

The result:

Pattern: My own, toe-up, basic stockinette

Yarn: Zwerger Opal Hunderwasser Cotton, in “Blaue Monde”

Needles: US 1 dpns

Thoughts: I always had mixed feelings when it came to self-patterning yarn. But these were wonderful and completely addictive. Part of this might be due to the fact that they don’t really self-pattern in a way that makes them look like fairisle (which I can do myself, thank you very much). They just look interesting. The colors had a wonderful depth and really subtle variation that made them an addictive knit. I think they are actually my favorite pair of socks to date. Now I want to go out and try all the colors. Fraternals, all around!