fo: Hermione's Everyday (Cuban) Socks

It's official - I've been bitten by the sock bug.

It's a little painful at first, but before you know it the bite mark has healed up and you barely remember a time when you didn't have an undying love of knitting around and around and around and around and then doing the fun heel turn then the gusset (my favourite part, for some reason) and then around and around and around before OMG WE'RE AT THE TOE THEY'RE ALMOST DONE THEY'RE ALMOST DONE and then the brain-breaking but magical part of kitchener-stitching the toe closed so you can't even tell there's a seam.  MAGIC I TELL YOU.

Okay so when I put it that way, objectively it does sound really boring.  But not anymore in my brain because I've been bit.

Pattern: Hermione's Everyday Socks
Yarn: Fibre Artist's Trail Sock in some mystery colourway that doesn't show up anywhere online, apparently.
Needles: 2.25 mm dpns
My Ravelry project page
Mods (because I can't not modify any pattern ever, apparently):

• Cast on 4 extra stitches to account for wide calves/ankles/foot.  Next time (because lets admit it, there's going to be a next time - this pattern is delightful!) I'd probably do 8 extra stitches
• Reduced height of sock to only 12 pattern repeats instead of the suggested 18
• Knit two extra rows on the heel flap and picked up an extra stitch on both sides
• Decreased every other round on toe up to 24 stitches remaining on each of the top and bottom, then decreased every row until 15 stitches remain (don't ask - something weird happened and I fudged - luckily the same weirdness happened on the second sock) before kitchenering.  I have blunt toes so this fits them better (JUST BLUNT TOES NO MISSING TOES, I'M NOT AN EVIL CHANGES-CHILDREN-TO-MICE WITCH I SWEAR - even if I do love practical shoes).

(I loved that book when I was little, and definitely need to re-watch that movie!)

Most of the mods were to account for wider-than-apparently-average foot and ankle/calves widths, but also because I've noticed that the heels are always a little short on me.  I suspect this is why I sometimes wind up with pooching of the sock on the top of the foot at my ankle.  Maybe?  Who knows, but I'm going to experiment with more height on the next pair because I'm bitten - what does more experimental pairs of socks matter?

These socks were my Cuba project (you might recognize them from this blog post) - started the day we left Whitehorse and knit everywhere from the plane to the lobby bar to the beach to the pizza joint down the road over fantastic pina coladas, and even in a 50's classic Chevy!  They were a fun travel project - interesting enough to not be boring but easy enough to pick up and put down without paying too much attention to them.  And they charmed a few of the local ladies working at our hotel - I don't think knitting is all that big there, but boy are there a lot of crocheters!

I'm pretty proud to say that I finished off one whole sock while in Cuba (kitchenered the toe shut on our last day there!), and got a good third of the second sock on our torturous 36-hours-of-no-sleep travel day.  :P

Taken during our epically long layover in Edmonton. That iced cappuccino was AMAZING.

Why did I pick this pattern?  Well, everyone else seemed to be doing it, so...

No but seriously, the Ravelry pattern page has over 12,600 projects posted and at least 3 people in my knitting group has knit them.  It was only a matter of time.  Just waiting for the sock bug to bite, I guess.  This yarn was perfect for it too - beautiful colours (including that gorgeous creamy brown that reminds me so much of delicious Cuban coffee and makes me weep over my mug of North American crap).  Trail Sock is wonderful to work with and I'll definitely be knitting more socks with it in my sock bug poisoned future.

I immediately cast on another pair of socks once I finished these. Except toe-up cast on SUCK HOLY COW.

I'm warning you now, escape while you can!  This blog is now infested with sock bugs, and if you want to save yourself from witnessing the spiralling insanity of the newly obsessed sock knitter, or want to avoid the poison yourself, RUN AWAY.

RUN AWAY NOOOOOWWWWW.

Pants!!!

On goodness guys, I SEWED PANTS!

These are seriously my kryptonite.  I was traumatized early in my sewing career by pants sewing, and despite a few tentative attempts, have never been able to sew a pair that fits.  But then Gillian made a pair of (polka dot!) Style Arc's Elle Pants which looked awesome, and she encouraged me to brave this pattern since it's real simple.


So yesterday, I finally did.  Sadly, the above picture is all your getting today.  I had everything set up to take some photos today, when the camera said "please charge battery".  Ugh.

Well, at least it said please.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

And uh, sorry for the long delay with posting.  I had a great Cuba post all written up, but then blogger ate it and that ended any motivation I had to blog.  Whatever, I'll try rewriting it another time!  For now, here's a picture of some kite surfers we watched while drinking rum from a coconut on the beach.  OH YEAH.