Once Upon a Sock: Smooth Operators

Hi friends, and happy Thursday!

As you can see, Thursday sock time is back, under a slightly different guise.  After some chatting amongst the group of us who blog about socks on Thursday, we’ve decided to move sock talk to a once a month format.  So stop by the first Thursday of every month for some gabbing about socks!

My Tube Operators, as I’ve taken to calling them, are coming along, slowly but surely. I’ve inserted the waste yarn for my afterthought heel (the lavender strip between the pink and green stripes closest to my needle) and have been working on them here and there.

I’ve been dragging my feet (ba-dahmp-chah!) on these a bit because of the heel.  The lovely pattern, by Susan B. Anderson, suggests that you go ahead and work the heel once you’ve knit a few inches past your waste yarn.  Even though the pattern suggested it, I didn’t wind off the requisite yarn for the heels before getting started.  I can pull from the outside of the ball, but the thing is, the colors on the outside of the ball are not necessarily the ones I want to use for the heel — it would mean I start wtih black and since the black stripe is the penultimate stripe before the start of the heel, I don’t really want to have two chunks of black so close together (are you this neurotic about your socks?  I realize it’s silly — who is going to see the heel?!).  But I’ve been reluctant to start snipping yarn to get to a different portion of the color sequence until I’m sure I have plenty left to finish the sock.

This is, overall, a pretty small issue, but I’ve hemmed and hawed about what to do, wasting knitting time winding yarn off the outside ball to see how far I’d have to go to get to some different colors to use for the heel, thinking about starting the heel, and deciding once again to wait (I’ve done this multiple times!).  I think I’ve finally decided that when I’ve got about 3/4 of the foot done, I’ll assess what yarn is left and do the heels based on that.   Hopefully I’ll have these ready to wear soon!

Now, friends, I’d like some help.  I’m trying to decide which socks I should knit next, and I’m completely torn!

A while ago, I mentioned Viola’s lovely sock kits for her Emily’s Favorite Socks pattern — and I managed to snag one, which I adore:

I love the idea of these simple, slighty oversized socks — check out this gorgeous version of them — and I’m dying to knit with the really gorgeous yarn … but, I’m also wondering, after a summer of knitting relatively plain socks, if I want my next pair to be pretty basic as well …

Enter option 2: Droving, out of Plucky Feet and this lovely white yarn that I’m 90% sure is Anzula’s fingering weight Squishy:

What’s a knitter to do?  Simple socks out of a yarn I’ve been excited about for months? Or a sheepy colorwork challenge (did I mention the socks have sheep on them?! SHEEP!)!  I really want both pairs of socks … and I only have one set of size 1 circs for sock knitting, so casting on both pairs isn’t really an option (unless I buy another needle… it is, after all, Socktober …)  Which pair would you start with?

Tell me what you think in the comments, then head over and check out what my fellow sock knitters are working on this month.  You can find Paula at Spin a Yarn — she’s got a lovely discussion of the impetus for our post change and its new name — and Maggie over at Projects in Progress.  And if you’d like to join our monthly sock discussion, feel free to link up go Once Upon a Sock, on the first Thursday of every month — and let one of us know in the comments so we can link back!

Hope you have a good rest of the week and a happy weekend!  It’ll most likely be quiet around these parts this weekend because Mr. N is coming to see me this weekend!!! **Queue happy dance!** Saturday’s his birthday, so we’ll be celebrating all weekend — hopefully I’ll have some fun adventures to share with you next week!