WIP: Ember Socks

So round one of Sock Madness has begun! The pattern for the first round is Mad Cow Socks, but I have renamed my pair since the colors make it reminiscent of something different all together. (Salbard has pointed out that maybe I should be knitting rather than posting, but I want this to be a fun process. If I am so bent on knitting to the exclusion of other things I love it won't be.)

The inspiration for my yarn combo was a single skein of Koigu KPPPM I bought while I was in Wisconsin. At the time I remember that it made me think of fall or harvest. Why I bought just one skein I am not entirely sure, but when I saw that there would be a Sock Madness pattern that required a skein of variegated yarn and a solid skein I knew that this was its chance.

But what should I combine it with? I didn't have anything else that was about 175 yards/50 g, and if I was going to have to color work (unclear at the time but ultimately untrue) I really wanted something extremely close to the weight. So I turned to Lucy for advice. She suggested something I would never have considered: Silky Wool. Not having my Koigu with me I bought a skein in black, figuring everything goes with black right?

Ultimately it worked out splendidly. The Silky Wool has a similar sproingy quality to it like the Koigu but with some added nubbiness. And having the Koigu color way already labeled in my head as harvest colored, but when Salbaard looked at it he immediately thought it looked like embers, especially in combination with the black. It has sparks of red and yellow with stretches of orange for the low burning flames and shades of brown ranging from light brown to dark burnt browns for the less burnt wood. Then the silk/wool blend had dark grey bits among the black, giving it an ashy character to the charcoal. In the stitch pattern I could totally see this come to life (see image). And so I am renaming my pair the ember socks. Have I thought to much about this? Absolutely!

I am not sure that I will continue to the next round, but I have been having lots of fun. We slept in until almost 10 am. I figured I would only be an hour or 2 behind. I did not expect to get the pattern before 7! This is totally not a criticism though. It was great of them to get it to us early.

Then, for those not in New England, I went outside to discover that that it was gorgeous! I could have spent all day inside, but who was I to miss this amazing 50*F weather? So instead we went to the Blue Hills to do some hiking. Here is a picture of my with basically just some toes at the tower on the summit. Maybe I'm behind, but I am happy.

This evening as it got a little cooler again, I curled up on the couch and did some knitting. Is it just me or am I the only one knitting 2 on a circular? It is allowed in the rules, but everyone else seems to be doing theirs one at a time.

Here is my progress by dinner. (No the toes aren't different lengths, one was just sticking up a bit and appears at a funny angle.) I am 6 repeats in, but after a quick try on I think I will do a 7th. Then on to the heel!