One of my very favorite things ever is getting to paw through the bags of yarn-by-the-ounce at Knitted Wit for new favorites. Oftentimes, the skeins of sock yarn are about 70 grams or so, which is actually pretty much perfect for a pair of socks in the leg-height I most make and adore.
I snagged a skein of a very beach’y Unicorn Giggles, and just kind of waited until the perfect time to wind it up. With the Rose City Yarn Crawl fast approaching, I realized that there would not be a better time. I had two trunk shows scheduled with LJ (and another trunk show by myself), and Unicorn Giggles is the happiest colorway ever, and it would look fantastic in the new variation of Stumptown Socks I was dying to try out, so I wound up the skein, started the toe, and got to knitting.
I finished sock #1 at trunk show #3 (at the Knitting Bee) on Saturday, and happily casted on sock #2. The Stumptown variation was so perfectly fantastic, particularly in this magical Unicorn Giggles skein. I started working my way up the foot, chatting and giggling and funning my way through the rest of the yarn crawl.
I worked a bit in dribs and drabs the first few days after the crawl, knowing that this would be my all-day project at Knot Another Hat for the International Women’s Day trunk show and celebration that I was taking part in yesterday (Thursday). As I turned my heel on that day and started working up the leg, I began to wonder if I had enough yarn to finish the sock.
I was on the cuff by the time we bid farewell to Hood River, and it started getting dark on the way home (plus I have a tendency to carsickness in the back seat), so I put my knitting down and concentrated on laughing as much as possible for the trek from HR to PDX.
Then, today, I looked at the amount of yarn I had left over. I looked at the 15 rows plus stretchy bind-off I had to do to finish the sock. I thought, “shit, do I have enough???” And I started knitting, knowing that I’d be just fine with a few rows of contrasting color at the top of the cuff, but hoping I wouldn’t have to resort to that, because that really added to my ends to weave in.
And guess what? I won! I barely won, and am not entirely convinced I could have eeked out even one more row, but I finished with a bit of yarn to spare, AND I have the most giggle-inducing, magical-a-rific socks to show for it. Plus, a new take on my favorite sock pattern of all time (which I’ll add to the pattern really soon), and an excuse to make a ga-zillion more….