G. Knerd

I have a habit of persevering even when I know a knitting project isn’t working.  Over the years, I’ve tried to break the habit, but…every now and then, something slips past me, and by the time I realize I should quit I’m already committed.

So…a couple months ago, I got it into my head that I would recreate these socks:

(Sorry for the stray cat hair in the picture – I blame Monkey Kitty)

And a better texture shot:

When I made these a couple years ago, I was so excited – I thought the pattern was beautiful, the yarn (Trekking XXL in some lost colorway) was exquisite, and I was ready to write it up as a pattern for Knitty.

Then, a month later, Knitty came out, and it had this pattern in it.  I was crushed.  They weren’t the same as my socks, but they were close enough that it wouldn’t make sense for the Knitty editors to take my pattern after publishing that one.  I gave up on the pattern idea and went back to knitting random other sock patterns.

But when I found myself between socks a couple months ago, the idea came back that I could write up the pattern, and even if Knitty wouldn’t take it, maybe someone else would.  Or maybe I’d just post it on Ravelry myself.

So…I cast on with the ball of yarn I had with me (I was visiting the Blanket Thief’s family at the time), and got this far:

It…wasn’t exactly working.  The stripes in the yarn were just too discrete, and they were hiding the pattern I actually wanted to display.  Plus, I’d used a 2×2 rib for the cuff instead of a 1×1 (with the k sts twisted), so it was off to the frog pond for that attempt.

The next attempt was started at home, so I had access to all of my sock yarn.  Why I chose this particular yarn, I’m not sure – I think it had something to do with the fact that the color changes were so quick (around 5 inches on average), so I thought it would come out in a nice mottled look.

Yeah, sometimes I think I’m on crack too.

I somehow managed to not take a picture of the yarn before knitting, so I’ll just show you the final project.

Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Fun in the 139 colorway, Pattern: My own Chinese lanterns adaptation

Yeah.  Totally didn’t work right.  The colors are way, way, way too busy for this pattern, way too complicated, way too bright.  You really can’t see the pattern at all, actually.  I think I would have been better off going with the first yarn instead, despite the striping.

Maybe next time I’ll figure it out before I’m well into the second sock.  I would have been willing to frog it and started over with different yarn if I hadn’t already finished the first one…