Pomatomus: A Tale Of Woman Vs. Sock

Finally, a post about knitting. They're done. The Pomatomus socks are done. I did actually finish on June 30 -- thus making my Project Spectrum June deadline, but with the long weekend, I haven't had time to post until now. But yes, they're done.

I did not enjoy making these socks. I believe I knit on them every day of last month, and if my commitment to finishing a pair of socks for each Project Spectrum month hadn't been keeping me motivated I doubt I would have finished the first sock let alone started the second. I didn't like my yarn, didn't like the pattern and didn't even like the finished project. Still, I'm proud I finished, so here are the specs:

Pomatomus Socks from last winter's Knitty
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote in Bluegrass
Needle: U.S. 1.5 bamboo DPNs
Mods: omitted one decrease at toe



First off, my distaste for this project has nothing to do with the designer or the yarn company -- both the pattern and the yarn are perfectly fine, they just weren't for me. The thing that held me up the most about the pattern were the number of KTBs -- the last two pairs of socks I did had a lot of twists in them and I think I was just fed up with them. When it came time to do straight stockinette on the feet, my finger memory had forgotten how to do plain knits. So that held me up and also led to a lot of tension in my hands and shoulders. I broke two needles doing KTBtogs and warped the hell out of my needles. Not a pleasant way to knit. I didn't mind the complication of the chart, though I did zone out while watching Canada's Next Top Model one night and made a really big error (I think I k2tog when I should have yo'ed). Because I was so pissed off at the socks, I didn't properly correct it, but you can barely tell with the finished socks.

I also wasn't crazy about the way the toes and heels were constructed (too many ptbs -- which are even worse than the ktbs). If I was a more experienced sock knitter I would have gone with a different heel.



As for the yarn, I'm still loyal to all of Brown Sheep's products, but I was a little disappointed with this yarn. I generally love hand painted sock yarn, but this was a little too saturated with colour, so it really stuck to my bamboo needles (note to self: must invest in aluminum sock needles). Also, while one skein had nice bits of red that appeared periodically in the colourway, the second only had bits of a dark wine colour -- even though they were from the same dye lot. The yarn also split a lot and was unraveled in sections.

So, yes, I have been knitting and yes, this is all I have to show for it after 30 days. Still, I think they're cute socks and will probably wear them a lot over the winter. I've already started a couple new projects, which I'll post about later in the week. Until then, I've got a soccer game to watch. Go Italy!