FO: 2011.01

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn :: Sock [Turner (851)]
Needles: Knit Picks Nickel Plated 6″ DPNs :: US 1/2.25mm; Knit Picks Nickel Plated 6″ DPNs :: US 2/2.75mm [cast on]
Start: 1 January 2011
Finish: 31 October 2011
Made for: me
Pattern: Hayrick Socks [Anne Hanson]
Size: XL

Holy crap!  It’s been way, way too long since I did one of these FO posts.  It is true that knitting production has been down for a while, but not that down…

Mostly, there are two hurdles I find to making FO posts happen:

1. Lack of motivation… to block!  I feel like blocking is a process that takes so long.  All that drying time.  So, instead I let things sit around unused.  Like letting objects sit around without blocking will somehow take less time…  Gotta work on that.
2. Photo shoots!  I feel a compulsion to have photos of my finished objects that are as lovely as I can make them.  For me, this means a few elements need to be present: daylight, motivation and means.  These rarely occur all at once.  Perhaps I will need to start employing others in this process…  That will make some shoots a bit easier, especially for those awkward angles on garments.

Anywho, onto info about the finished object!

First, the yarn: The Malabrigo Sock yarn was absolutely lovely. The colorway is gorgeous, although so varied that one sock is noticeably darker than the other:

I’m still in love with the color, despite this quirky coloring anomaly.  In addition to the color, the yarn was such a pleasure to work with!  It creates a nice even fabric with great stitch definition.  Overall, it really worked well with this pattern.

The pattern: This is my first Anne Hanson pattern!  I fell in love with this pattern when I first saw it in the knitspot shop; I had to have it.  Luckily, it was gifted to me during one of my knitting group’s gift exchanges.  (Thank you, Jessica!  Sorry it took me so long to get around to knitting them…)  The pattern is well written and easy to follow, even if your relatively new to sock knitting like me.  I did make some modifications, as is usual for me.  I just cannot leave well enough alone.  First, an eye of partridge heel:

because, apparently, I cannot help myself!  And a toe modified to fit my foot a bit better than the original:

So far, without fail, I’ve found most sock pattern toes to be written for people whose toes are decidedly more pointy than my own.  Perhaps I’m some sort of freak of nature.  Oh well!

As you can probably tell from the project name, 2011.01, these were supposed to be the first of many pairs of socks knit this year.  That didn’t happen, obviously.  I’m hoping that my year of socks goes a bit better, though…  I’m already working my way down the gusset of the first sock in Red Bull, my first year of socks project.  That’s a very good sign.

Overall, I’m totally in love with these socks.  Although, I think they are a tad big.  I’d like to knit this pattern again.  Perhaps next time, I will knit the large size instead of the x-large.  With the amount of stretch the pattern has, they should still fit and bit a little more snug…  theoretically…

Here are some more photos, if you care to see more. Click any photo to embiggen.

PS  I used this new Mac app called Analog to modify my photos for this post.  What do you think?  I kind of like the film-like effects…