I finished almost all of my works in progress last week, save for the Portulaca sweater I've been working on. I did this so I could free up some space for my next round of projects. It seems that I tend to work on waves. I cast on like mad, I knit on a few projects, the I become more monogamous and then comes the bought of finishing.

Due to my lack of projects, I was starting to get the cast on itch and it was driving me nuts. I really wanted to cast on my "Rescue me, chin boy, and show me the stars," socks by C.C. Almon, but I had to wait for Katie to get her yarn. Once it finally arrived, I eagerly cast on and knit like I had someone chasing me. But of course something had to go wrong with so much enthusiasm involved. And just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

I cast on with Hiwasse Creek Dyeworks BFL Self Striping Twist. It stripes blue, black, dark grey, black. It is the most beautiful shade of blue I've ever seen and the darker colours really makes it pop. Apparently, this yarn is a tad bit leaky and leaked all over my hands while I was trying to work with it.
This really should have been my first clue that this yarn didn't want to be this pattern at all.
*I contacted the seller and she immediately said that shouldn't be happening and she offered to replace the skein for me. Talk about wonderful customer service!*

Then I realized that I dropped a stitch and the whole thing had to be frogged. So I started again, getting bluer by the second, and hit the ground running. This time, I got all the way past the toe and into the pattern design. After I had almost finished the first pattern repeat I then realized that the pattern was actually detracting from the yarn and vice versa. So I frogged the whole thing yet again.

The I cast on with Knit Picks Stroll Handpaint in the Nevermore colourway. I knit the toe in a sitting and a few rows into the pattern. It was looking ok, but not what I really envisioned for the pattern. But I ignored my knitters intuition and just kept going, and going, and going. I finished the first pattern repeat with that nagging feeling the whole time.




















I left this one as is because it was ok, even though it is a bit too dark to show of the wondrous pattern. I cast on a third (really more like a 5th time with the fiddling with the Black Ice) with one of my Zauberballs and I've finished the toe now and have just started the patterned part. When I first cast on I hated what it looked like but kept going anyways. I'm really starting to like it now and think that the pattern could look really really nice in this yarn, as long as it doesn't seem too busy, which it might.



















I really really hope that this one will work out because I think that this one might be the winner and I really want it to be. I've got my Juego to work on and hope that these socks figure themselves out so I can move onto a few other projects.



Happy Crafting,