Sock Rut.

I have been in a sock rut. I will admit it.

I knit Jaywalkers, and 3×1 broken rib socks, and stockinette socks. It gets a little boring sometimes. So when Jen gave me a spectacular skein of Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering Weight in Harvest for my birthday, I decided maybe I should shake it up a little.

Birthday yarn!

This is a pretty intense yarn, and it deserves a pattern to show it off. So I went with the Herringbone Rib Socks, which was published in the Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn book that came out about a year ago (and was also released as a freebie through Knitting Daily). I cast on for the small size, knit the leg and heel, and tried it on… and discovered it was too small. To the frog pond it went, and we cast on again for the large side.

A whole month later, I finally have a finished sock.

Herringbone Rib Socks

Now that I have got a sock (and a half) of this pattern done, I finally feel like it’s clicked. There was a lot of tinking involved, which makes me feel kind of ridiculous, because it’s only a two-row pattern, for Bob’s sake, but it took a long time for me to feel comfortable with it. I think I’m finally there, though:

Herringbone Rib Socks

I have already cast on the next sock and it’s going so much faster now that I finally know what I’m doing, but I keep stopping to put on the first sock and admire it.

Perhaps I should stop doing that and knit faster, so I can wear both socks at once? That would be too easy, wouldn’t it?