Box of socks

I've been admiring everyone's box-o-socks KAL boxes on blogs and instagram for a few years already. Those boxes full of neat and sweet socks look so cute. Now, I finally decided to join in the fun.

What: Monkey / Cookie A.

How: Circular needle 2.25 mm

From: Zelda's dippins Wild n' free, 78 g

So, I made another pair of Monkeys. Even though, I wasn't meaning to, not at all. But let's start at the beginning.

It all started with the idea to knit a box of socks this year. I got extra motivation from the thought that I could knit all those sock designs that I've had in my queue for years. You know, the ones that are really cool and I've been meaning to knit but somehow never got around to actually doing it. I also paired them up with yarns. Yep, those skeins from my stash that are really nice, yet they never seem to end up on my needles. Two birds, one needle, or how does the saying go?

First, I dug up a historical treasure from my stash. Years ago, there was this blogger in Finland that dyed yarn and sold it on her blog, Zelda. Her yarns were my first handdyed skeins. And once, I won a competition and she promised to dye something especially for me in the colors I wanted. I asked for a mix of spring greens and got this lovely yarn. Except that I never had the heart to use it. You know, 'cause then it's gone. But now, I finally wound it up and cast on for a pair of socks.

I didn't start with Monkeys. Several years back, I bought Rachel Coopey's e-book When Vampires Knit Socks because it had plenty of pretty socks I was going to knit. Except that I've only worked one pair from the book. Do you see a pattern here? But hey, now I finally would!

Right from the beginning, everything went haywire. The model I chose had plenty of cables and the designer used quite a lot of stitches to make sure they wouldn't be too thight. My gauge was off and I don't know if I could've saved it even using 1.5 mm needles. The socks also had a chart that I just couldn't memorize to save my life. It took me a couple of weeks to get the first sock close to the heel flap and when I finally tried the sock on it was huge. It could've accomodated both of my legs and even the hight was so off that they would've been knee-highs. At that point, I remember this hobby is supposed to be enjoyable and ripped it all off.

And so I swapped the unlucky pattern for one I've liked before and everything clicked into place. It only took me a couple of days to finish both socks and they were a breeze. I loved every stitch.

So, I didn't exactly get to knit a new pattern as I was planning. But sometimes it's not about the pattern but about the yarn. I finally knitted this treasure from my stash. The yarn had a mind of its own and made these funky spirals. You can see from the toes and the heel flap how the colors behaved in the first sock attempt. Such a difference!

There it is, the first pair in the box of socks. We'll see who's the lucky one getting this box at the end of the year.