Themed socks! The first section is squashes (yellow crookneck and zucchini), the next is tomatoes of the yellow and red/pink/purple (“black”) varietals, and the leg is eggplant. We shall see what the cuff will be - banana pepper? Watermelon? Hm….

This is my PLEASE DEAR LORD I NEED A BREAK FROM PLAIN STOCKINETTE SWEATER KNITTING break project. I’m sure you all understand. This is also going to be my “must correct my knit stitch” project - see, a fellow knitnight knitter very kindly pointed out to me that I actually manage to form knit stitches with a twist. As I’m a weird knitter, I didn’t really worry about it, just did my thing and let it look a little weird. Hopefully I can correct it. :)

This is my first Fair Isle project! Heeeeere goes!

My foot is smaller than 8.5” circumference, so I may do these to a 9 or 9.5/spi gauge, instead. We shall see but a toe-up colorwork sock really appeals to me as a two-fisted knitting sock first.

I might work contrast yarn such that one section’s contrast becomes the next sections main while maintaining the Sock Ease for toes, soles, and heels for wear.

Later: Well I’ve finished the first sock’s toe and am a few rows into the first chart. Things appear to be working out nicely and 74 stitches should work okay for me. I may add a stitch or two to the sides in order to achieve a heel that fits. We shall see. I’m really liking the work with BOTH yarns. While normally I find a wool-nylon blend worth it for the wear, it does usually tend to be a lot scratchier. The Sock Ease, not so much which I’m sure is the aloe they added as a yarn treatment.

Well a few bare days later and I’ve turned the heel and am most of the way through the leg chart. Things are going trippingly though there have been rows where I’ve had to tink back. I’ve worked out my knit stitch issues and the corresponding purl rebalancing nicely and I may have conquered two-fisted knitting which will be a handy skill in the future.

My socks are at a much snugger gauge than I intended but it’s working out fine - TEN spi. So hey, that works.

At knit night last night I picked up a ball of Mini Mochi to use for the leg MC, in very greyed out green/charcoal/v. dark purple colorway. While I’m not wild about using it where it will see wear, I figure that the leg is okay, will see little wear compared to the heel/toe/foot, and I like that it’s giving a fuzzy texture to the trees in the leg/eggplant section. It’s still not my ideal for socks that will see wear - and it’s so soft when knit up that it’s really hard to not wear!

Aug. 1, 2010
Well, I’m about back to the point where I found that I had to rip back an inch and a half, back into the leg/eggplant section, in order to redo so that it would go over my ankle. I have also increased at the sides to achieve the Large size stitch count, and that’s going well, now. I’ll just increase at the same point (the tops of the trees in the leg section) for the next sock. I’ve restarted the cuff - which appears to be a plum section of red and purple plums

Aug. 9, 2010

Sock number one was done last Sunday and I turned the heel and started up the leg on the Friday just past. The rest of the weekend was a KAL for a sweater and cleaning/moving things in the house. More sock later - but I love how sock #1 turned out

Aug. 10, 2010
DONE! Pictures later but I bound off the second sock this afternoon. The whole family’s ill so I’ve had some serious couch time the past couple of days.

I did realize after I was about to begin the colorwork in the toe of sock number two that I had in fact left of a repeat of the first design section after the center medallion bit of the first design section. Well, I was hardly going to rip out the whole completed sock so I repeated the error in the second sock foot. Otherwise, my sock would have been another 3/4 inch taller. This works out, though - I’m short and curvy, so leg curves start a but early.

For fit reasons, I had to use a simple knit bind-off. I bound off the first foot as directed (which is simply Jeny’s Stretchy Bind-Off) and it positively flops down, not showing the nice two-color ribbing at all, much less, staying well up on the leg. The second foot is doing much better - I’ll undo the first one’s bind off and redo as a simple knit bind off.

But I’m finished! WOOT!