Retro Rib Socks
Despite everything else that happened this month, I still managed to meet my Southern Summer of Socks goal of one pair per month. This pattern is “Retro Rib Socks” from Interweave’s Favorite Socks. (More photos are on Flickr.) I’ve now made FOUR pairs from this book; I love it. What I didn’t love was the yarn: TOFUtsies. It’s a blend of wool, cotton, “soysilk,” and chitin. (Yes, ground up crustaceans.) Sounds interesting, right? I had a hell of a time getting it to behave.

My first problem was that I tried casting on from the center of the ball, thinking I’d do my usual “knit two at once” trick. Right away I ran into difficulty. This yarn is so loosely spun and apt to split that I just couldn’t make any headway with it. A single strand would always be pulled loose from the rest and I just couldn’t get it to sit properly. I tried about three different patterns before giving up and going to the outside of the ball. That worked a lot better. (Of course, it also meant I had to knit them one at a time, so I had to battle a little Second Sock Syndrome.) Also, as the yarn has very little stretch, I had to cast on over two needles to get it loose enough to go over my leg, even though I’d already gone up to my usual 2.75mm needles.

Okay, so that’s all the negatives. In the positive column, it certainly feels very nice to wear. I even made the Snook try them on to gauge the prickliness factor, and whether I could use the fiber for him. (He likes them better than pure wool but still finds them itchy. Weirdo.) The other nice thing is the meterage. I had heaps of this yarn left over, and I didn’t make them deliberately short or anything. You’d defiitely get a man’s pair out of a single 100g ball.

Next up: Jaywalkers! I’ve finally given in to the temptation, seeing as how everybody else in the known universe has knitted them.