A Gentlemanly Pair

A relaxing spring break at the in-laws resulted in my most quickly knit pair of socks yet. From cast on to cast off -- nine days. Not a record by any means, but the quickest I've ever been able to make a pair. Here they are all finished -- the Gentleman's Fancy Sock(s).

Before getting into the sock wrap-up, let me mention a fantastic exhibit that we went to see while in the Metroplex this weekend. The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth has an amazing exhibit on, Drama and Desire: Japanese Paintings from the Floating World, 1690–1850. It features works from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that rarely get shown. Such beautiful paintings! I found myself as interested in the fabrics and scroll containers as much as the art. The works by Hokusai (of the Great Wave fame) toward the end of the exhibit were my favorites, especially Libo Admiring the Waterfall.

Back to the socks...

I really like them, despite a big mistake resulting from my inability to read a pattern closely. The instructions dictated the number of rounds to knit for the leg. From the cast on, 20 rounds of knitting for the cuff ribbing. Then, each of the next 90 rows is dictated. However, because I read repeating a 20 round section as repeating 10 rows, my sock ended up having a leg that is 10 rounds (or about 3/4") short. I like socks as long as they can be, so I'm bummed that I did this. I noticed the mistake while making the second sock and rather than undoing the first sock, decided to make the same mistake in the second. Turns out this mistake was fortunate, because it's doubtful I would have had enough yarn to finish both socks if I hadn't left these 10 rounds out. So it all worked out.

I'm still not sure what I think about the tweediness of these socks. They definitely look better in photographs and from a distance than they do up close and personal. I was telling Jeff that they look like someone took a nice pair of slate gray socks and barfed a Colombian or Romanian flag all over it. To be fair, there are green bits, too, but they don't show up at all.

I think this little distraction may have been the thing to get me back on track with the Bomb Pop socks. Let's hope so.