Lost Socks

I like to knit socks.

Yup.

Me...A sock knitter.

Those of you who have not been following this blog will be surprised to hear that but the rest of you know that I enjoy knitting socks.

Of course, I don't get to wear them a lot in the 100F heat and 100% humidity we get aorund here these days but I do enjoy them for the ease of the knitting, the paucity of materials and the portabilty of the projects.

Then I began the June installment of the Twisted Yarns 2010 sock club.

Pretty hand dyed yarn from South America and a wonderful dimensional pattern called Maelstrom Socks by Cookie A seemed like a surefire combination.

Aren't they lovely?

Some of you may not notice but one sock is about two inches longer than the other and the wonderful swirly pattern falls apart ... both problems in the sock for my left foot.

Trust me... even my very first sock is not as misshapen as the sock on the right of each of the pictures (which is for my left foot).  Okay, maybe not as bad as my eyeglass case sock but certainly up there with sock disasters I thought I would never have been able to accomplish.

Lessons learned in knitting these socks:

• NEVER work on a pattern that requires some concentration when knitting, nose blowing, coughing and three little nursemaids (Alex and the Girls) are all competing for your attention. 
• DO NOT RELY ON MEMORY.  Just because I have knit the toes of many socks does not mean I know how the toe on this sock will turn out.  If I was that good one toe would not be 1" longer than the other.
• Sock one does not equal sock two.  Even if I finished the sock for the right foot only two days before starting the sock for the left foot does not mean I will remember how I achieved the pefection of the first sock ... especially when the pattern reverses itself from on sock to the other.  Read the instructions.. again and again and again.
• DOCUMENT.  It's my pattern and I can write on it if I want to but I didn't!  Every other sock pattern I have, from cheap photo copies to full color books have my copious notes.  Not this one.  It looks as pristine as when I got it.

At least they are done and that is better than never having tried. 

I have not lost them.. yet.  But I think they may end up a secret drawer someplace under all the other failed projects that I cannot bear to throw away.

I will try this pattern again and have already cast-on stitches for it in a lovely tweedy navy.  So far so good but I will let you know how they turn out... maybe it isn't me, maybe the pattern by the world famous sock designer is incorrect???  It could happen :-)