Off the needles

Finally something is done around here, the RPM socks are off the needles. Grab a cuppa cuz this is fairly picture intensive.

I like this pattern, but would make the purl stripes swirl the opposite direction on one of the socks if I were to knit them again.

Stats: Yarn: Shaffer's Lola - the colorway is no longer on their site. I adore this colorway much more than I had anticipated. At first I didn't like the teal, but it makes what could have been a very bland/boring sock great. I truly love the Lola yarns. I knit them up on US size 2 needles so they go pretty fast and make a very dense sock. This is the second one I have done and they are nice and sproingy. Heel: I changed from doing the heel stitch specified in the pattern and used the eye of partridge stitch instead. I am enthralled with how it comes out in hand painted yarn. Toe: The pattern was written to decrease down to 4 stitches and run the yarn through them all. I have very wide feet, so I increased the length of the foot and did my standard toe, decreasing to 24 stitches and kitchnering. BTW - have I mentioned that I like kitchnering as much as I like seaming? The first toe was fine, but that was last month. This second one was a bit more challenging. It probably didn't help that I stayed up way past my bedtime to get the darn thing done. It took at least 17 dozen tries because I kept repeating to myself "knit, purl" for the front needle. Okay, so far so good. Heading for the back needle now "knit, purl". DOH. *Frickafraca. Undo that. Okay, front needle "knit, purl". Yep, that looks okay. Deep breath, back needle "purl, knit". Yep, okay. No funny misplaced bumps. Front needle "knit, purl". Back needle "knit, purl". Where the hell did that purl bump come from. Repeat from * until no more stitches remain. Seriously. A retarded monkey could have done it faster. Not better, but faster. Eventually I got it right.

How sad is it that this is the one picture in which my ankles are visible that I don't have cankles. It truly is an injustice to an avid sock knitter to be cursed with ankles that would fit The Refridgerator Perry perfectly. Just as a side note, I discovered that I am not as flexible as I used to be. It is very difficult to photograph ones own toes in this fashion.