Much Better Now.

In bits and pieces, here and there, scattered through the last few days, there has been knitting on that thing I know so well.

You might recognize the yarn from last weeks sock choices.  I opted for an all Patons sock.  I had a skein of black Kroy and I voted to use that with the two skeins of colourful Kroy FX I had.  

I have knit other skeins of this same type of Kroy colours, and found that though they look striking on the ball, they lose something in a plain knit.  I also find that Kroy is a little short of yarn for a gents socks.  The black is needed but two row of black is also just the right number for a punchy accent that draws out all the fine gradations of colour.  Black for the toe, heel and top of the cuff and colours with stripes in between.  My kind of knitting.

Of course, all of this leads me to debate what socks I am going to knit for his sister.  You cannot knit socks for a mom, and one of her kids, leaving the other out in the cold.  Nu uh.

When I picked up needles for my these socks, I found, much to my horror, that there were two sets of sock needles bundled together. I know I have 4 sets of this size needle.  That meant I only had 2 sets of socks on the needles. Why I could almost panic at the thought. I may have panicked, but only a little and only for a moment. I knew I could fix it.  

As I am a wise knitter, with multiple skeins of pretty sock yarn and an unending love of plain knitting, I cast on a pair for me as well, also Kroy, also striped.  

  This yarn has a much more defined colour change.  

I only have one ball of this yarn, so yarn management is critical to get a nice pair of socks out of it.  I know it works with this yarn.  I have these as proof.

The striping on this new pair isn't quite as dramatic as the black and red socks, but it is interesting to knit.  You are always watching for the colour change so you can do something. (Interesting aside:  You can see the Still Light tunic in progress, under this pair of socks!)

 I do have two other pairs of socks on the go.  One is patterned and it is a a dark place on the coloured skein right now.  It is a little bit frustrating to knit except during the very brightest part of the day because I simply cannot tell the yarns apart and have lost track several times of where I am.  The other is an intensely bright neon orange and delights me to no end but...

I had two spare sets of sock needles!!  I had to fix that.  I feel much better now.