Twinknit

Yesterday — hot, humid, and deliciously, unbearably sunny yesterday — was my first day of school. My first day as a teacher and not a student. My first day teaching three classes in one day. My first day with 48 scared college freshmen who I swear are getting younger every year. It’s nice to have purpose again (I guess three months of doing practically nothing was enough time off for me), but right now, I’m feeling a little frantic.

But I’m not talking about frantic now, because lately I’ve had one thing on the brain. That one thing is socks. I’ve been having kind of a love/hate relationship with socks in the last few months. Socks have always been my go-to project. My ravelry cue is filled with socks and I have even more projects mentally (and physically!) bookmarked. But ever since last winter, I keep finding myself casting on for new socks before finishing the old ones, often losing interest before I even finish one in a pair.

(this might look familiar. Yep. That’s ’cause it’s still not done.)

After I completed my tangled yoke, I had no interest in casting on for socks again — I was hooked on sweaters. And yet…

Cast on I did. For five more pairs. I would knit and rip, reknit and rip. I couldn’t seem to find myself committed. I settled on the Philistine approach to socks, figuring I would knit one sock in all of my sock yarns as motivation, and then cycle through, finish my pairs, and officially destash myself of sock yarn. Then, I reasoned, I could concentrate on sweaters, shawls, and CABLES (I am obsessed with cables right now).

But then you people! You people started knitting beautiful socks that I couldn’t resist. Like these. And these. And all at once, you started posting pictures of your beautiful sock yarn — like this, and this, and this (although, to be fair, every time Elin takes a photo of yarn, I want to buy it). And I find myself slipping back in, staring at my sock yarn, and wanting more. Gotta finish my pairs first!

Pattern: Donyale Socks (on Rav)

Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Sock and Baby Yarn (this yarn was a completely unexpected graduation gift from John and Carol, two of my favorite North Carolinians. Man, I miss them. They gave me two skeins of delicious sock yarn, a jar of pickled eggs and replenished my molasses supply, all without once being asked. Ok, I lied. I did mention the pickled eggs!).

Needles: US 1 dpns

Thoughts: I only have a few things to say. I added five extra stitches (an extra “cable) to widen them, as I was worried they would be too tight. My worry was not in vain; even with the extra stitches, they are still tighter than I would have liked. And, like an idiot, I thought I knew better than the patter (note to self: you rarely know better than a pattern) and did not follow the toe decrease instructions (I decreased every other row, rather than every third or fourth row). So again — a little on the small side. But totally wearable, and perhaps with a good blocking the yarn will ease up a bit. I have plenty of yarn left over if I need to be a big girl and re-do the toes. I finished these while in Kansas, visiting the incomprable Elinor. More on that in a future post. For now: One pair down, a gazillion more to go!