harlotty

nearly as long as I've been knitting socks, I've been shopping for sock yarn. I shop for a lot more sock yarn than I actually buy and really, I actually buy it faster than I can actually knit it but I spend a lot of time.. window shopping. and a lot of time hangin' out via e-lists, message boards and blogs, with other people who knit socks. since that time.. comin' up on a year and a half, I've been seeing people rave about the wonder that is socks that rock. I look at it often, thanks to the internet, I lust after it often, but my LYS doesn't carry it and it comes with a price tag that I tend to rule out. I might not rule it out if it was available somewhere where there were other sock yarns that more fit into my budget that could share the shipping cost, and I may not always rule it out, but so far it has remained beyond my means.

a few months ago there as a thread on one of the sock knitting lists about.. the cost of sock yarn, justifying that 18.00/skein price and I spoke my piece about how that price exceeded what my budget would justify for a pair of socks but with some good shopping around, it was quite possible to knit luxury socks on a knitpicks budget. (gonna have to try a few balls of that new yarn). I rambled on about how it was possible if you looked hard enough, to knit socks of nice european balled yarn for 6.50/7.50 a pair, how you can get mill ends of luxury merino sock yarn on ebay and come in around 10.00/pair.. I didn't mention how it's even possible to order lorna's laces from an actual store for less than 5.00 a skein if you happen upon the right sale because that hadn't happened yet but I still maintain that it is, quite possible, to knit socks of quite a variety of nice yarns without having to spend 18.00 plus postage on a skein of yarn... and I did then.. and allowed as how one day I would like to try some of these other nice things, the small batch handpaints from the various raved about sellers, the socks that rock, etc.. and I was confident that some day my budget would allow me to do so but until then, with diligent shopping, I was not feeling all that deprived, and was able to make nice socks for everybody I thought would enjoy them. :)

a gal on the list emailed me a few days later and said she wanted to send me some yarn. she mentioned socks that rock, and claudia, specifically and I allowed as how she didn't need to do that, I was not deprived but she insisted she wanted to so I sent her my address and we went back and forth a few times over a lot of weeks, her saying she was mailing that yarn asap and me assuring her if she'd changed her mind that was perfectly OK and her reaffirming her intention to do so but it never happened, I didn't figure it would.. it was nice of her to want to and nice of her to feel the impulse to make that gesture and I perfectly understand how mailing off her expensive yarns was not a high priority for her, after the initial impulse. :)

but around that time, my sister showed up for a visit, and she brought me a cake of yarn that she had purchased on a trip to oregon with her fiance. guess what? socks that rock. :-D I emailed the yarn-offering gal and told her I had some now so she didn't need to worry about sending me hers anymore. :)

so.. my sister brought me a nice cake.. yes, cake.. I didn't even have to wind it.. of STR medium weight in the harlotty colorway (mine doesn't look much like that one). it was particularly cool because she came the weekend of sock camp when I was reading everyone's blogs about how much fun they were having and wishing I was there.. really cool. :)

I had some other things to do first.. it's not really weather for medium-weight socks.. I put off knitting the yarn for as long as I could and finally I couldn't any longer so then I had to think what to do with it. the harlot for which it was named did a nice feather and fan sock that I figured was lovely enough to attempt to duplicate, however.. my attempt in no way resembled and I didn't find it attractive at all.. with the pattern I found on the internet and the yarn I had, I produced the initial portion of a sock that was going to be too big even for me, and was going to be vertically striped. pooling isn't my favorite attribute of yarn anyway but if it's going to pool I'd prefer it to at least... meander a bit..

so I thought about it some more. and I decided that since I had made my sister a pair of monkey socks of some yarn I purchased in germany when we were traveling together this winter, it would be fitting if I made a pair for myself, of the yarn she purchased for me on her trip with her fiance.



and so I did. still not happy with the way that yarn pooled, but.. it did meander a bit, at least..



they remind me sorta of owls in the trees.

anyway, I finished the socks and there was some yarn left over, so I thought.. I should make a pair for the baby! my sister's fiance's daughter is going to produce a second child.. this one a son, in september and what better thing to do with the yarn they purchased while visiting oregon (and the child's great grandparents!), than make some socks for the baby. :)



so.. I did! it's so cute! I found an adaptation of the monkey pattern for a baby version and.. it's too cute!

so.. I made another!



sorta. :(
and that's where the story ends.. about 5 yards or 600ish stitches shy of a second baby sock.

if you happen to run into anyone with a few yards leftover of this color/weight.. please aim them my direction.. please?