The Yarn Harlot made me do it

"It" being signing up for MS3 (aka Mystery Stole 3) and I suspect I am not alone (in fact I know I'm not as it seems that sign-ups jumped from c. 4000 to c. 5000 after Stephanie's post about this KAL). However, I'm not blaming anyone, indeed what seemed like a somewhat insane idea (what with the looming Sockapalooza deadline and all) on Friday evening is looking rather more feasible now because...big drumroll...the first Sockapalooza sock is finished, right down to its little Kitchenered toe (I'm knitting top down for reasons that will be explained later).

How has this been achieved? Answer, I think I may have put in about 24 hours of knitting time this weekend. Here it is in pictures.

The yarn arrived on Friday morning and on Friday evening I dashed up to Katie's after work to wind it into a lovely fat cake of yarn.



I'd already decided that I would knit a variant on the Kew pattern from last autumn's Knitty. The colourway is Ocean Forest so it had to be something leafy (and possibly also a bit wavy) and the Kew pattern seemed just right. I wasn't overly keen on the top of the socks as pictured, they seemed a bit on the loose and ruffly side (I like the tops of my socks to be snug), however I did like the garter stitch wave on the edging. The solution, I knit the edging and one repeat of the Kew stitch pattern over 70 stitches as directed and created a fold-down cuff which hides 20 rows of 2x2 ribbing at the top of the sock.

worked up to the turning row at the top of the cuff..



pretty weird looking sock..



but turn down the cuff..



turn the heel..



work 2 repeats on the instep..



and voila, the finished article.



If you look careful;y at the edging in photos 1 and 3 you can just see the clear beads used in the beaded cast-on. Not to get too poetical or anything, but my sock pal has been bemoaning the Florida heat and I thought that rain-drops on leaves might be reminiscent of the somewhat damper British summer!