Sock Wars, Round the Second

OK, you really can't see how pretty these socks are, and the colors aren't true. Sockinator sent me the stripedy yarn, which is Sirdar's Denim Tweed. It's charcoal, or possibly dark denim, depending on the light, and cream and the most lovely delicate pale pink, which causes the charcoal to "read" as purple, particularly in the fluorescent light of the break room at work.



I wasn't sure there'd be enough yarn to make two socks, as LadyLungDoc's tootsies are a bit longer than mine, so the "blue" yarn is Debbie Bliss's Baby Cashmerino in soft grapey wonderfulness.

I'm pleased to report that the yarns play nicely together. As you can see, when we photographed these on Sunday afternoon, I was sneaking up on the toes on one sock and ready to pick up for the gussets on the other. As with the yarn I chose for Sockinator, I used a size 2 to get gauge, and I actually did a better job with gauge on this one than on the first.

The Baby Cashmerino is *heaven* slipping through my hands, though it seems a little overtwisted to me. It doesn't look that way in the ball, but there's a visible skewing in the stockinette stitches that Pleaseth Me Not. The left side of each stitch is as upright as one of the guards at Buckingham Palace. The right side bellies out like a sail. Not so noticeable in the ribbing, however.

I'm glad I only bought one ball to embellish these socks, and not enough for a sweater. There was a Brown Sheep yarn that I used 20 years ago with the same problem, but it was a *single*. I got around that by working it up in Aran vests for the girls, three of which [sweaters, not girls] are still extant and will show up in another blog post in the near-ish future.

I also bought two balls of Rowan Felted Tweed for my Tweedalong project. I think I will need the 2's to turn them into a pair of socks. I haven't decided on a sock pattern yet. They go beautifully with my newest lace-embellished T-shirt from WallyWorld. And they will just have to wait patiently for me to be done with Sock Wars. [Update: I am going to begin "Thuja" from Knitty's archives to celebrate Socktoberfest.]

I had hoped to mail these off on the drive home from work last night, but I finished them after LittleBit's sectional practice for choir. They'll go out on the drive into BigD, if traffic cooperates, or else on the drive home tonight. I'm in contact with LadyLungDoc's target. I think I can take down *her* target before my socks finish swimming over from Melbourne.