Return of the Sock

So I finished my Elisa Shawl, which was a very good thing.

Then, I recieved my blocking wires from Inspinknity, and immediately started blocking everything I could get my hands on. First was the Elisa, since it was on a time schedule for Camp Loopy. Because I stink at taking pictures, this is my best shot of the end result:

I think it looks quite a lot better in real life, so I'm pretty darned happy with it. The colors are gorgeous, it is nice and warm, and it has already garnered multiple compliments from muggles who were then subjected to a long story about how "I knit!"

Anyway, next victim on the list was my Fountain Pen Shawl, which was languishing unused, due to the fact that unblocked lace looks awful. See, people say that all the time, but part of me didn't believe blocking was going to make a huge difference. I mean, there are lots of people out there who say they've been knitting for decades and never blocked a single thing, aren't there? After finishing blocking this, I think these people are either not knitting lace, or they're missing out on something magical. With blocking, my Kiri-Same went from this:

To this:

I have now been wearing it all weekend, and thanking the weather gods for the omnipresent thunderclouds on the horizon in my vicinity. I think people are going to start blaming me for the unseasonable cold soon, since I'm enjoying it so much.

I also blocked an older project, my Multnomah out of Noro Taiyo sock, which is also incredibly improved by both the washing and the stretch. It's a little bigger, much softer, and much more uniform now. Sadly, I haven't taken a picture of it finished. I'm not usually a fan of cotton anything, but this is well enough mixed with wool, silk, and nylon, that it didn't irritiate my tensioning finger.

To the point and title of the post, though, I'm back to working on my true-love-of-knitting, socks. I made my first pair in March of this year, and since then, I've made approximately ten more pair. I rashly decided upon finding Cookie A's newer book, Knit.Sock.Love., that I would have to make every single pattern within. In the order in which they appear in the book.  (cause that makes sense, right?) While this has proven painful, because I very much want to make my Monkey socks in my Cascade Heritage in the colorway Green Opal now, so far I have actually managed to do this. In the last three days, I've cast on a pair of Marilindas, and a pair of Stalagmites.

The first pair, the Marilinda's pictured right, is for me. They're turning out gorgeously. I finished the first complete sock in about a day and a half, so if anyone's worried about the pattern being complicated, stop that right now. It's one of the simplest patterns in the book so far, honestly. I've gotten about three inches into the second one, and suspect it will be done by the end of the week. I'm only doing one pattern repeat for the cuff, unlike the book's prescribed two, just because I like my cuffs either knee-high or short.

The second pair is for my husband, and they are being knit in String Theory Caper Sock, which is one of the most perfect things known to man. (I'm still not getting anything for these endorsements, I swear!) It's only 10% cashmere (80 Merino, 10 Nylon), but it is undoubtedly one of the softest, fluffiest yarns I've ever worked with. I'm going to have to work very hard to give them to my husband when they're finished. Mostly, it's just going to be hard to stop petting them.