FO: Socks

Pattern: Bavarian Cable Socks, Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy

Woo hoo for finally getting these off the needles - where they have been since Valentine's Day. Yikes!

 First let me give a shout-out to my delightfully helpful boyfriend for the following things: being a patient and inspiring sock model, giving me free reign with his camera, showing me how to use some photo-editing software, and deciding that taking pictures of knitting is so much fun that he'll help me on a regular basis.  This is great news for anyone reading this blog because he's a much better photographer than me.  My next post will have some evidence of that!

About the pattern:  This pattern comes from Wendy's book and it's perfectly well-written.  For someone with average-shaped feet the fit is great.  But. My bf, I have learned, does not have average-shaped feet.  His heels are pointy.  As in, my leg makes a 90-degree angle with the ground and his make like a 75-degree angle.  The heel on this sock (and probably like half of the sock patterns out there) can barely accomodate the extra volume in the heel area.  See:

Luckily I've already found a different type of sock heel that fits him better and will probably stick with that one in the future.  These socks have already been knit though.  Oh well.

 I took so long for these puppies because all those twisted stitches making up the "cables" are painful to knit.  My right pinkie always cramped up after about 20 minutes of knitting.  This problem was probably exacerbated by the needles I was using - 2.0 mm circs with a short "needle portion" (the hard part at either end).   Definitely a fault of the knitter and not the design.

About the yarn: I have already mentioned that this yarn is a little disappointing for me.  I mean, the color is beautiful, really I could ogle this yarn all day.  However, the yarn itself gets quite thin in places, and pills like anything. Trying to compensate for the delicate yarn, I used much tinier needles than recommended, and this just gave me a pilly fabric that was also stiff. I guess the "Smooshy" comes from its being loosely spun, so perhaps I shouldn't complain about all this and use it only for low-wear items in the future.  But still it's a bit of a downer to finish my bf's socks after an eternity and have his first comment be, "they're kindof fuzzy, is it supposed to be like that?"

Considering that it's a pattern that I'd rather not knit again with a yarn better suited for something else, I would say the project turned out OK.  On to the next, I guess.