Monkey Magic

Sunday, June 24, 2007

I must be the last knitter on the planet not to have done Monkeys, Jaywalkers, or a Clapotis. Well, not anymore: my first project for Summer of Socks 2007 is a pair of bright banana-yellow socks that I've dubbed Midsummer Monkeys. They're modded, of course, since I like to work toe-up but Monkeys nonetheless. The yarn is German sock yarn from a company called Max Gründl, Hot Socks Laola, colorway #653.

This is what I had 12 hours into SOS2007. That's not 12 hours of knitting -- although I would've been happy with that. :D The starting time, 5 a.m. EST, was 12 noon for me so I cast on on my lunch break on Thursday. The pic above was taken at about 12 midnight on Midsummer Day.

Here's the situation 24 hours later, on Friday night. Some progress, sure, but not as much as I'd hoped.

And here's Sunday afternoon. I got sidetracked with baking. :) Mmm, sock knitting and cake! (I'm sensing a yellow theme here.) My unofficial goal was to finish the first pair over the first weekend but looks like I'm not gonna make it. You can't really see it in the picture but I've already finished the heel on the first sock and I'm currently working on the heel flap of the second one. As far as goals go, I try to...

• Finish at least a pair -- hopefully two pairs -- per each of the three months of the -along.
• Try different yarns and fibers. I don't have a big stash, not even sock yarn, so I want to try out stuff I've never worked with before. Handpainted stuff, bamboo, soy-protein fibers, stuff like that. And hopefully accrue a decent size sock yarn stash for the winter. ;)
• Knit some of the really popular and famous sock patterns I haven't tried yet, like Pomatomus, Baudelaire, and yes, those Jaywalkers too. :)
• Knit some intricate cabled socks.
• Enter the design contest! With cabled socks, perhaps?
• Knit for someone else other than myself. I'm a really bad gift knitter so I want to work on that and maybe finish some Christmas presents early. :)

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