Can you fall in love twice?

I am so giddy that I can't even wait for a good picture, so I'm posting a crappy cameraphone shot:



This is my newest sock, Caledonian Mist from Pink Lemon Knits in Handmaiden Casbah in Peacock. On Ravelry I am calling it my crown jewels socks because several inches ago, when it was just the cuff and a few rows of pattern beneath it, it really did look like a crown with little jewels stuck on it.

I really thought this colorway was going to be a disaster - I actually was trying to get Casbah in Topaz or Peridot, I can't remember which, and it turned out they were out so when they called me, I took a quick look at the site and named a colorway without much thought. It looks pretty enough in the skein but when I wound it I was terrified. I thought, this is going to be awful. I wound it with the full intention of casting it on that night, and then I didn't. It sat there forever and ever while I knit other socks and then finally, Tuesday night I needed a new sock project and this one was already ready, so I cast it on and there I went and what do you know? The pattern is magic. It turned this colorway into something spectacular. My biggest concern about it was the yellow - I was sure I was going to hate the yellow. Well, it NEEDS the yellow, otherwise it would look so muddy. The little yellow passed over stitches pop against the dark background, and it just looks fantastic. I'm so thrilled. And it's FAST! Apparently I can yarn over and pass a stitch over faster than I can switch from knit to purl and back again, or something. I don't know. All I know is that I am speeding through this and the yarn, OMG, the yarn is so wonderful. The sock feels like velvet. I may never knit with another yarn again.

But, of course, rain comes along with the rainbow, and I do have some Concerns. The first is the cuff, which is done in seed stitch bordered by two rows of garter. It is pretty and I like it, and it was a lot more fun than never-ending ribbing (although I really thought that, with the chocolate waffle scarf and all, I would rather slit my throat than ever do seed stitch ever again), but it doesn't pull in the way that ribbing does, so while it stretches outward just fine, it doesn't really pull in, so I am going to have to be sure to make this sock long enough to go up to an area of my calf wide enough to fill out and stretch that cuff. I have had issues in the past with sock length. My sock length is always determined by how far I can get the sock up my calf without cutting off my circulation or bursting the cast-on.

I am worried about the yarn itself being a little too thick, as well - I definately could not switch down a needle size and still have fabric that would, you know, bend and stuff, but I don't have as much negative ease (is that the right term?) as I would really like to be comfortable with. we'll see - if I make it through the heel turn and it is still properly snug, I'll be fine. I'm just afraid I am walking the line between guage being too tight and the sock being too loose and I love this yarn so much that I will DIE if I cannot get it to knit correctly.

I really thought I could not love anything as much as the merino/tencel blend in the last socks, but these will just be so comfortable and soft. I also suspect they will be like a furnace for one's feet, but I'm sure that will come in handy with winter coming on.

More to blog but I'm out of time and it will have to wait.