Socks of Serendipity

Sometime during Month 2 of the Summer of Socks KAL I had a brainwave to knit the then-TBD Month 3 sock using this old stash yarn, Zen String Lotus Toes BFL, colorway Iris (discontinued). This because my Month 1 sock has a lotus motif on its cuff and the Month 2 pattern was Lotus Heart... so I figured that to round things out the Month 3 yarn should be Lotus Toes. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I suppose one should note that in the continental U.S. July 2012 was the hottest on record. Coincidence?



I've always liked the lovely colors in this yarn, so evocative of irises, but I'd never knit anything with it because I suspected the short runs of complementary colors would end up contrasting as strongly as zebra stripes (only more colorful). When the official Month 3 pattern, Simple Skyp Socks by Adrienne Ku, was revealed, despite better judgment I plunged cast on. Sure enough, the variegation overwhelmed the pretty skyp stitch pattern. Plan A dashed.

Meanwhile, I had wound up the recently finished Crown Mountain Farms handspun in preparation for knitting gradient socks. That didn't work out either – the transitions weren't clean enough. Another Plan A dashed.



While I sat amid the ruins and potsherds of my plans, the obvious presented itself: Simple Skyp Socks in Crown Mountain Farms handspun. The socks knit up so quickly, they almost knit themselves. I kept thinking I should take some progress pix – then they were done.



Much to my surprise, only minimal editing was needed to align the bands of darker tones, including at the heels and toes. And despite my anxiety that there might not be Enough Yarn (particularly acute with handspun), all was well. The socks are knit to pattern specs for the sportweight version: 56 sts around, 24 pattern reps in the leg.



The pattern was a real pleasure to knit – fun, easy, quick, with handsome results. I plan to use this pair as hiking socks – but I'm thinking of knitting up a dressier pair in fingering. Given how rarely I knit socks twice, there isn't much higher sock praise in my book.