While Matt was tweaking the formatting and coding the special new photo bar, I was knitting. Not surprising, eh? I completed one pair of socks and started my SockapalOOOza socks.

Come on inside and see what's going on.

By no means did the yarn magic itself into socks nor did Dobby knit these up for me, but I think that my Gryffindor socks are wizard! The details of these socks can be found here in a previous article.

I've worn the socks once already, unfortunately with a loose pair of clogs. I wore these shoes because they're good to show off socks. But their loose fit along with my shuffling gait has caused the heels to pill and haze over. Now there's a fuzzy line across the heel and gusset. Its something that only I will see (or other knitters when I show it off to them like a doofus), so I'm not too worried about it. They're still mightily comfy and bloody brilliant, IMHO.

Also in sock knitting news, I've made fine progress with my SockapalOOOza socks. (Does anyone else start to capitalize a few letters early when typing that?) As stated in this article, I'm using Cherry Tree Hill in the 'Life's a Beach' colorway and the Pomatomus pattern from Knitty. (Ugh, and that name (Pomatomus)? Sure I can spell it, but try to pronounce it... without looking at the word? I imagine that it's some kind of freaky genetic mutant combined from a hippopotamus and a tomato. -- yeah, I'm touched like that.)

I'm in the mist of the second repeat of the leg pattern, and I can finally say, "I get it!" When I started the patterning, I was tripping and falling all over my stitches. Knit with four double-pointed needles [dpns] (three holding stitches and one to knit with), this sock was more prickly than my standard five dpns. And this lace pattern will make you question your yarn over [YO] abilities. There are YOs at the beginning and ends of the needles, and sometimes I swear that I would sit for five minutes just flipping the yarn around and over this way then over and under that way trying to figure which was correct.

But now, it's clicked. I can "see" the pattern in its stitches and it makes sense. I don't cling to the pattern for dear life anymore; I can "read" my knitting and know what comes next. Ahh - that's liberating. It is still fairly slow going, as its a constant switch from knit to purl to knit, etc. But can you see how beautifully it is knitting up? I took advantage of some great weather we're having to snap a few pix. No touch-up on that sky: that's pure Texas spring, baby!

Update If you're here from the 200Sox link, this post just shows one of my completed socks (the Gryffindor pair). My other finished pair is the Pink Lemonade Socks discussed here. Thanks for stopping by tho! Leave a comment and let me know what's up.

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