Monkey A Month - January

This month's VeryBusyMonkey pattern is completed well ahead of schedule, though not without some setbacks along the way. 

These are the Paragon Socks, and I do love the pattern, its very easy to knit but my yarn choice wasn't the best because it hides the pattern somewhat. The yarn is by Schoeller and Stahl Fortissima Colourway 2451 and I think its just the most wonderful colour though a bit more variagated than I had expected.  I must admit, I'm not sure why I didn't expect it to be variagated since the ball of wool is more than one colour and the ball band faithfully shows the sock patterning.  But sometimes, I see what I want to see, not what is actually there and I saw this ball of wool, and I saw the turquoise colour, and I wanted turquoise socks, and the rest of it sort of faded out.  I carried on knitting the socks because the pattern is fun and the wool is fabulous, and they will go with my SWAP.  I can knit the pattern in plain colour yarn another day. 

This has been one of those projects where things just went wrong for me.  Normally I can knit socks on a 2.5mm needle, and they just fit perfectly so, after many pairs of socks, I must admit I don't swatch for socks, I just pick up my 2.5mm's and cast on.   This pair of socks proved the exception to my rule.  I got the first sock leg done and it was much too large so I had to pull that out and start over with a size smaller needle.  And I finished that sock, and it seemed a bit baggy.  It was perfectly wearable but I thought I could do better. So I went down yet another needle size, to 2mm. 

I must admit I was also interested to see just how much difference needle size would make, not only to the size but also the resulting fabric.  I have a feeling that the sock knitted on the tiny needles, which is firmer and closer knitted, will wear better.   And what better way to prove this in practice than to have a pair of socks, which after all take quite some wear, knit on differing needle sizes.  This is one of the reasons I didn't unpick the entirety of sock one and start over.  The other reasons are laziness and an overwhelming desire to cast on something new.  :) 

I also have blue hands now.  The yarn must have masses of loose dye so I will be putting the socks, and the remaining yarn (which I want to use in my blanket) into a bath of vinegar water overnight, to try to fix the dye a bit better.  Cos I have no desire for blue feet to match my blue hands. 

And just for a laugh, here is another photo from the shoot .. which shows that putting the camera on the floor on timer can sometimes result in a rather odd perspective.  My foot reminds me of those Looney Tunes cartoons where a weight falls from the sky onto the animal's foot and when it pulls it out, its all flattened out.   Or perhaps this is what a duck would look like if it wore socks.