Over the summer, at Suzy’s wedding, I got to spend a lot of time lounging around with my old roommate, Crystal. We’d been BFFs in college and lived together for a yearn in Philly where we’d lounge around every night while I knit and she stole my knitting needles to poke holes in the couch cushions. Getting to spend all day every day with her again at the wedding was like going back to college - it helped that Suzy was getting married on our old college campus!

From the moment I pulled out my Mermaid socks to work on, Crystal was in love with them. She loved the texture, loved the little lacework panels, loved the colour. She was hooked in by knitted socks without ever even owning a pair. She half-joking, half-serious said, “You should give those to me!” If I could have brought myself to part with them, I surely would have but this yarn instantly reminded me of Crystal. She has such a calm, cool personality. It makes me think of very still, deep, Bahamian blue waters; her personality is probably why she’s so wonderful at her job of working with children with autism.

I knew that I wanted to make her socks; in my book, anyone who thinks knitted socks are cool deserves a pair. When I saw this pattern in the Cookie A. book, I knew that this was the right one. It had the teeny bits of lace to it that she had loved so much in the Mermaid socks, it wouldn’t be so hugely complicated that I would curse at her socks as I made them, and I didn’t love the pattern so much that I would want to keep them at the end. (I think that’s a huge part of gift making - never make something for another person that you might fall in love with and want to keep for yourself!) Let’s see if I can get these done before Christmas so I can surprise her.

One of these skeins of Claudia’s is the old base (the Louet one) and one is the newer base and I can SO feel the difference. The older one is just kinda “meh”, not really soft or warm at all, but the newer one is sooooo nice.

12/16, later - Crap, already a mistake. I was working on this while catching up on House with my uncle and failed to notice the instruction under the chart for the leg. “Note: On Rnd 5 of Leg chart, do not work last st in rnd. Move marker indicating beg of rnd 1 st to the right.” Crap crap crap! I hate it when I make mistakes because there is no one to blame but myself.

I’ve decided that this is, however, a mistake I can live with. No point ripping back an hour’s worth of knitting. Cryssy isn’t a knitter and probably won’t notice. I somehow doubt it’s going to look dreadful or awful since it’s just in the first two patter repeats that I made this mistake. If it’s noticable, I’ll just make the same mistake on the second sock.

See that? Even us anal retentive types can learn to let go of some mistakes!

12/19 - Well crap. I made a mistake. The heel flap is WAY too long - which makes the heel far too big so the whole thing is kind of bunchy. Even though Cryssy’s feet are half a size bigger than my own, I know that it’s too big. I’ll have to rip back and readjust, which will mean hours of extra work. I’m thinking of putting this aside and starting on the other holiday present I want to make. After all, her birthday is in March. I can send them to her for that. Plus, the sock feels like it’s a little hard to get onto my foot. I’m thinking that it might be good to add some extra stitches? I don’t know, I’m still trying to figure out what to do.

3/4/10 - I pulled these out the other night - Cryssy’s birthday is getting close! - and started again. I decided to stick with the 2.5mm for the cuff - that part at least was perfect and when I went up a needle size, it looked WAY too big. The rest of the sock I’m doing on the 2.75mm. I’m one repeat in and already feeling more comfortable. I’ll try them on when I’ve done a few more repeats, but I get the feeling these will be a much better fit.

3/18/10 - I just turned the heel on the first sock (I love turning heels!) and tried it on - it fits beautifully. I am so, so pleased. I’m thinking that I might not have enough yardage though…it’s hard to tell because I’m knitting straight from the too-small sock. We’ll see, it’s not like I won’t be able to procure a third skein if I need to. I’m just so thrilled that it fits correctly. It’ll probably be done a few days after her birthday, but they’ll be done soon!

3/28/10 - Look at that - just a few short days after Cryssy’s birthday, her socks are done! I would have finished sooner if I hadn’t had major issues with my cat Lilah that basically wasted me for the past few days. Plus, I should have worked on the socks during my conference but didn’t think I’d be able to concentrate on the charts. I definitely see now that I could have done so easily - live and learn. The socks are both fantastic. I, of course, am very aware that they are two different bases. They don’t really feel different when you put them on your feet, but the newer base has deeper blue flashes than the older one. I finished them tonight while Mom, Brenna, and I were sitting in front of the last fire of the season and singing, which was an absolutely wonderful way to complete them. Tomorrow morning I’ll soak and block them - I almost never block socks but these could definitely use it because of the pattern and because half of one sock was done using very froggy yarn - and hopefully by the end of the week I can mail them to her! I’m really excited for her to get these, especially because she was wonderfully kind and supportive this weekend when I called to cry to her about Lilah.