Let the experiment begin

Lots going on at Hugs here this week, with tiny buffer zones of summer walking and sock knitting. Which skirts us ever closer to the need for different sock knitting! To that end, I picked a yarn for the first Sock Experiment.

It's Malabrigo Sock's 'Myths' colourway. And I can tell from the look of the two cakes I wound from the one big 100g cake, the socks are not gonna look the same, SIGH.

Brace yourself for a brief moment of negatives:

There are several criteria my new favourite sock yarn will have to meet, and Malabrigo Sock has failed on the first three. 

My beloved Vesper Sock never runs less than 100g and is always generously a bit more. Malabrigo Sock: 100g on the nose. 

And though Vesper Sock is hand dyed into stripes, and therefore no pair of socks will have exactly the same colours at heel flap or toe graft, they are at least comparable. None of this one sock lighter than the other stuff.

Worse, Vesper Sock is proper fingering, allowing me to use a 2.5mm square needle (round needle equivalent, 2.25); and Malabrigo Sock is 'light fingering.' Which meant I had to make the very hard decision to size down to 2.25 square needles, and cast on more stitches. 

I'm going to have to accept a shorter leg on this pair (a failure to meet functional standards) to compensate for the reduced yardage and tighter gauge... or else sub in another yarn to make stripey extensions on the leg (a failure to meet convenience standards).

However! all is not lost. There is a positive that balances some of this out, like the gorgeous blue sky is even bluer against this wafting cloud from my walk the other day...

 ... and this includes my having located my 2.25mm square needles despite their not being in any of the little knitting stashes I have in the living room, dining room, bedroom, and office. You'll never guess where I found them!  

in the knitting needle file boxes I keep in the basement. 

Who knew I'd actually *use* that thing, when I finally set it up after years of accumulating tools?

I wrestled with the change and challenge of new sock yarn for a couple of weeks before I could make myself go looking, but once I found the smaller needles, that decided it. I'm casting on eight more stitches and accepting shorter, potentially more hardwearing, socks by squeezing the gauge tighter.

Last night I found a show I wanted to try on Netflix: Murder Mindfully, a black comedy with some Nordic Noir feels. Once I'd settled onto the sofa in Treehouse Cottage (TM), I got to work casting on all those stitches and doing my tidy 1x1 ribbing for the top of the sock.

 

For an hour or two all I did was knit and watch that show. Like I said, there's a lot going on these days, and I've been mindful in my own way to block out some quiet times. Even so, I didn't expect to be thrilled to include such tiny takes-forever knitting in said quiet. And yet...

It was so *peaceful*. At the tight gauge, with these colours I'm really loving, and the tiny precise neatness of the needles, I could simply breathe while I worked. 

And when I was ready to go to bed, I'd finished the cuff! Even though I had to do two extra rows of it than uusal, to get the same distance as with my Vespers. 

I'm gonna be knitting these socks a long time though because whew, do they ever not grow fast.

Now the sun's come out and I don't want to miss any of these lovely late summer days, so I will take my leave again. I hope you enjoyed my Vicarious Walk pictures taken over the course of the week, and that you have a lovely day and weekend... see you next Saturday!