sock progress

This is a good thing:

Note that both heels and toes are done! I managed to get myself to graft the second heel last night.
















But THIS makes me happy:
I'm not sure why I find this so satisfying. I would have guessed that I would take the color over the monochromatic (especially black, which is much harder for 50+ eyes to work on), but no, it's these neat little black stitches that make me happy.

This toe is for this:
This is the long tube I knit last fall, thinking that "all I had to do" was divide it in half, put a toe on one end of each and ribbing on the other, install a heel and, hey, presto, I'd have a pair of socks.

That was back when I was thinking that tubular was the basic shape for socks.

Having learned that, well, yes, my handknitting *will* stretch to fit, *but* the nifty color patterning from the yarn will be pretty much lost when it's stretched....... I am going to reknit the tube into some actual socks. :-)

It's probably impossible to tell from the pics, but the toe is knit a lot tighter than the tube, which is part of what pleases me about it. I believe the tighter/firmer fabric is a lot more likely to hold up over time.

So I have knit the toe up past where anything knobby sticks out of my foot (so that the black part will take the brunt of the wear -- my socks seem to wear out over my little toe). I will mark the tube in its middle, so I know exactly how much of this truly excellent yarn I have for each sock, and start knitting from it, up the foot of the sock, as is my usual custom.

As for the water socks, I'm not sure if I am having a standard case of second-sock-itis, or if I just lost momentum while I waited to be able to make myself graft that heel. Maybe that's what second-sock-itis amounts to...... In any case, I'm not sure if I'm happy with how high the ankle is, in regard to when the calf shaping should begin. So I need to check that out before I proceed. I should at least check that, make a decision, put the needles back in, and do a few rows before I'm allowed to go back to the black-toe socks. (Which, by the way, are wool -- not sure if that is also part of why they make me happy..... The water socks are 40% cotton, 45% wool, and the rest synthetic.)

Yesterday was an annoying day -- a dog woke me up to let him out at 5:30 am (which is preferable to the alternative!), so I was groggy all day. At work I learned that something is being done in a hideous and *just plain wrong* way, and there is nothing I can do about it. I was still cranky and out of sorts when I went to bed with my knitting. After a few hours spent with the black toe, I felt much better. (Asimilation of dinner -- made by DH -- no doubt also contributed to improvement in mood!)

Knitting is Good.