“Do not mistake coincidence for fate.”
~ Mr. Eko

I’m leaving for NOLA just 12 hours after the finale of LOST. Clearly, I need a small project to work on while I’m on the plane and traveling, and I decided a few weeks ago that these socks would be perfect for that. I fell in love with this pattern the first time I saw it and when I got this yarn from EatMyOxygen, I knew that it was just right for it.

LOST is very much on my mind these days, of course. When I looked at these socks with Sarah, trying to come up with a great name for them, she commented on how the Etching pattern made everything on the socks connected - just like LOST. And then we found this word: apophenia. According to Lostpedia, apophenia is the perception of patterns, or connections, where in fact none exist. Most psychologists agree that this condition exists in everyone, to some degree; it is a bias of the human mind. Since this is a constant basis of LOST, I thought it was the perfect name. I might not be knitting this during the finale - I’ll probably be screaming and covering my head during most of the finale - but you can bet that over the next week while I work on these, I’ll be thinking almost exclusively of LOST.

I have to say, I’m a little irritated with the yarn - it was broken and retied in 3 places, so I now have 4 different sized balls of yarn. But the texture is fantastic and I’m really excited to work with it. It’s so skinny - I’m starting on 2.25mm, but I might drop down to 2.0mm.

Later
Yup, dropped down to 2.0, and I’m much happier. I did the Twisted German Cast-On and it really is a perfect stretchy cast-on.

6/13/10 - Sigh. Alright, it’s time to admit that this has been giving me problems. I got almost all the way through one chart repeat and decided that I really didn’t like the way the knit stitches looked and that I should make them twisted stitches instead. Did I rip out and start over? No. For some reason, I figured that it would be easier to just drop down each knit stitch all the way and twist them. I’m not saying this was a bad idea - it really only took about 6 hours or so - but I think my logic might have been flawed and that maybe it would have been easier to start over. I just really didn’t want to rip out the yarn again since it was beginning to look a little bit sad.

So I kept knitting and got about to the point where I thought I might want to start the heel, and I tried it on. Now, it’s not that the sock is tight…but it does feel snug. Too snug. I mean, I know it’ll stretch some, but there’s a huge voice in my brain going, “That’s not really comfy.” So this has been sitting on hold for 2 weeks without me touching it. I picked it up again last night while I was at the Tribe game, and I decided to leave the half done sock on the size 0s, but I’m also going to cast on another sock on size 1s. I really think it’ll be a nicer fit on that size, but I want to test it out for real, without ripping out all my hard work and then finding out that it was fine the way it was.

Who knew socks could be so freakin’ complex?

8/22/10 - Dear God in heaven, will I ever stop messing up these damned socks???

So, I went up a needle size and it’s been working out BEAUTIFULLY and I made it past the heel and all the way to half an inch behind the toe decreases when I looked at some photos of the finished socks online. That was when I realized it - I had been doing the Draw 3 and Draw 4 wrong. All wrong. I mean, really wrong. Instead of linking it across one knit stitch to the next, I was pulling it across the purl stitches and one knit stitch. Nothing connects at all. It looks like little dashes across the leg of the sock, not connecting octagons or diamonds.

I mean really, son of a BITCH! This is absurd. And the thing is, I love the way the original socks look, so of COURSE I’m going to have to start over. Again.
Again.
Again.

So just as a recap:
1) Started the socks on size 1 needles. Too big
2) Started the socks on size 0 needles. Decided after 30 rows I didn’t like the knit stitch the way it looked. Dropped down and twisted all the knit stitches. Worked down to the heel flap only to discover that the twisted stitches made the socks too tight.
3) Started over on size 1 needles. Fits perfectly - but I’m a moron and didn’t do the Draws correctly.

Yeah, I’m feeling very confident about ever finishing these.

11/11/10 - Done. Done done done done done! I cannot beLIEVE how long it took me to create this blasted pair of socks. What is WRONG with me? They are done, however, and they fit perfectly and are GORGEOUS. I love love love this pattern. It is surprisingly simple and quick (for anyone with an intelligence level above mine, clearly) and definitely makes a lovely pair of socks. I think that these are going to get a lot of use; the pattern isn’t so bold that it’s distracting and they’re such a nice dark colour, I’ll definitely be able to wear these and still look professional. I finished these last night during, of course, and episode of LOST. I’m very happy that I could start and end while watching the show that really inspired them.