Yarn: Socks That Rock, Ruby Slipper (one ounce left over)
Pattern: Badcaul
Needles: 2.5mm Addis
Date Started: 3.04.06
Date Finished: 3.11.06

On Friday I finally picked up this project again and started knitting the second sock, by the time I went to sleep I had turned the heel and by Saturday afternoon I had bound off. Anna, what weird voodoo did you put in this pattern? You would think I knit these socks using a sport or dk yarn, each sock only took me two to three days, if that. The combination of knitting an easy six row repeat, toe up, magic loop style created the speed to thwart any notion of second-sock-syndrome. That only wouldn't make a great sock pattern, but the perfect fit and the impressive results do. Can you tell I love these socks?

I still don't buy all the hype surrounding this yarn. It's isn't very soft, which makes it a great wearing sock yarn (yay!), but murder on my hands (boo!). Am I willing to sacrifice super softness for some cool colors? I'm not so sure yet. The colors are pretty cool, if you go on the site Ruby Slippers looks like it's just red and purple, but when you knit with it you find all these different shades of reds, pinks, oranges, and purples. I do have one more skein of STR (in gypsum) in the stash to help me decide later. The yarn isn't rough at all on my feet, unfortunately I don't knit with my feet so there you go. The heat today did make me realize that sock knitting season may be done for me unless I find the cotton version of STR (sock candy), does anyone know where I can find that without having to form a fellowship to go on some sort of quest?

Posted by bitter purl at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (30)

My original intention was to post about what I chose for project spectrum (Badcaul Socks in STR Ruby Slippers),

but then I decided to start knitting and blog about it after some progress (say after turning the heel).

Umm then somehow this happened...

When Leah told me how fast the Badcaul socks were going to go, I didn't think she meant lightening fast! Really, that one sock was knit here and there while watching my boyfriend play videogames or after dinner, but before a movie. This pattern is so quick and it helps that it's easily memorized, I can just walk around without lugging around a chart. The funny thing is that while I worked on this, one of my friends asked me how I had the patience to knit since progress was so slow. Apparently the space/time continuum is quite different between knitters and non-knitters. Dude, this was so freaking fast.

Can I be completely honest with you though? I would have finished this sock faster (and started on the second one) if it wasn't for the yarn. This blogland darling doesn't agree with my hands AT ALL! My index finger feels raw and itchy. Where's this softness everyone talks about? It's apparently missing from my hank. The colors are cool (even the boyfriend likes the yarn) and I like the way the yarn knit up (I think this is the best fitting sock yet), but I really don't think any of that is worth it if I'm going to hate the knitting experience. I'm going to wait a day or two to cast on for the second sock and once I'm done I'll make a final decision on this yarn, but I really don't see it becoming my go-to sock yarn (especially when I know what koigu, claudia's, sundara, and nature's palette feel like).

Posted by bitter purl at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (38)