Socks Done!

(behold) the MIGHTY MONARCH
Pattern: Butterfly Socks by Wendy Johnson
(from Socks from the Toe Up)
Needles: US 1 / 2.25 mm
Yarn: Knit it Up! Silky
Colorway: Sunflower
Mods: Well, funny you should ask about that, because clearly my socks look nothing like the picture in the books....
SEE:
Wendy's Socks (pink) vs My Socks (yellow)

HOW DID THAT HAPPEN????

Well, back in January the Yarn Harlot had a post about her self imposed sock club, where she talked about the error she had made in her January socks by not reading... She says something about how we do a thing a certain amount of times and then we quit paying attention and we don't READ the instructions. Well, that is exactly what I did! I decided that once I read "start the lace pattern from the chart," that I no longer needed to read instructions. THEN after one repeat of the lace pattern, I found it so intuitive that I closed the book and didn't open it until last week to double check the gusset & heel directions. At that point, I looked at the photos in the book, though "huh, mine looks different" and forged ahead. I was in pain and on meds from my wisdom tooth extraction so I couldn't be bothered to investigate. The next day Veronica came over and I showed her. She looked at the book pointed at the instructions where they CLEARLY state "Row 9: knit 6 ... then the lace pattern from the chart..." (I paraphrased) rather than the previous instructions of KNIT 1 then the lace chart. That would have staggered the "butterflies" and my socks would then have matched the book socks. Oh, well. I'll call it a "modification." They look nice the way they are.

My original plans for photoing these socks were going to involve black tights and a fuchsia background like The Cocoon, but then it was such a nice spring day (well, spring for me, other places would probably cal it a hot summer day. :P) and I am in a good mood because I've eaten my first solid foods in over a week, and I've moved and I have a pretty pool and I wanted to show off a bit. :D Can you blame me? I mean really, it is BEAUTIFUL out! BEAUTIFUL! So I went outside with the socks and the camera and Rocky followed me watched me for about 30 seconds, got bored with me and he rolled around in the grass. I think I need to video him rolling in the grass. It's got to be one of the cutest things EVER.

AND now I can knit a second pair of the same pattern correctly, and they'll actually look totally different! I mean Dr. Mrs. the Monarch need sock too right?

I mean, it's not like I've already decided on how to proceed with that... Not at all, I don't have a yarn picked out or anything.

In Love

Have you ever seen ANYTHING so pretty?

And it's so soft and beautiful and I'm in love... I did have 4 skeins but I shared and handed one over to Ronni. She's currently knitting the most beautiful, most soft socks ever... (AND doing it two-at-a-time).

**sigh**

Today is the surgery day. I'll be out and down for a bit. Hopefully a SHORT bit.

Cheers

The Ronni & Lucy Sock Club

Every year I see a lot of people post about their "self-imposed sock clubs" using stash yarns and patterns they haven't gotten around to knitting. It's a great idea, in theory, you have a sock club that costs nothing and you use up you stash yarn. For me, it didn't work. I tried to randomize the hell out of that thing and it still didn't work, like AT ALL. I ended up with abandoned projects, frogged projects, and never bothered with projects.

So I had this even better idea.That I'd pick a yarn and pattern for Ronni and she'd do one for me each month and we'd use that as our sock club. That didn't work so much either. Because we're both too much of "at this very moment I want..." people. So I sat and I though about how to make this work and decided we needed to do it as a trade each month. I'll give her a skein from my stash, a pattern, and $10 worth of extras to match the theme, and she'll give me the a skein form her stash, a pattern, and $10 worth of extras. So we have a swap club that costs us next to nothing and is super fun!

Why will this work better than the previous attempts? Firstly, it's not "my" yarn, so it's brand new and exciting. Secondly, because it's not "my" yarn it's a complete surprise. I have no idea what will inspire her "kit" to me, and she has no idea what will inspire mine to hers. The only hints we'll have are to stare at each others stashes and speculate. Thirdly, we're both awesome and we will have a marriage of yarn and pattern that is new and themed and just awesome. Fourthly, in case thirdly didn't cover this, we're awesome, the idea is awesome and awesome is my word of the day. :D

So we were going to start in May, BUT we got too excited and ahead of ourselves. The first "swap" will take place 2 weeks from today. I've got mine for her planned, pretty much to completion (no details to be told here, it needs to be a surprise!). Every following "swap" will also occur on the third Tuesday of each month.

I'm treating this like a true sock club. I'll have a special binder for all the "sock club" patterns she gives me. Ronni said she's making us special project bags for these sock projects... It'll be awesome. (HA! I used it again!)

We just need to name our club... I'm leaning toward calling it "AWESOME!" and leaving it at that. BUT tomorrow is another day, and I'm sure by then I'll have a new favorite descriptor.