Arrrrrggggghhhhh-ile Sock

Who ever invented the argyle sock must have been a looney tunes! I'm a knitting goddess, right? I have made plenty of socks. Argyle... no problem. I whip out the double points and cast on some luscious navy blue. I don't need the pattern until I get to the intarsia work. Round and round I go in ribbing. I finally reach the stockinette and I add the colors. This will be a breeze. One time around and.... what's this? All of my bobbins are on the wrong side! What the heck? I guess I'm forced to look at the pattern. Cast on on straight needles? Oh, my god. I rip everything out and start again. This really isn't a major set back; I can maintain the zen-like knitting state. I add the colors and do the first row. I turn the work and start the second row. Half of the bobbins fall out because they are just haning there. Rip again. Six times I try to add hte colors, and I'm never satisfied. Finally, I decide I will go ahead and maybe I can fix it up later.

I keep working the colors until the cross hatches cross the diamonds. I don't need a pattern here, I can "read" what I'm working on. Two rows later the numbers are all off. I have to rip back again and redo that part because I "read" it wrong. Of course I only figured this out after I stared at the pattern for 35 minutes.

Now I start cruising. I finish the color diamonds, change colors, and I'm really going to town. I can do this! UNTIL... I start the final diamond on the instep. I must have ripped that one out 13 times. My entire family was telling me to throw the sock in the fire pit already (we were camping at the time). But I kept working, and one night, by lantern light, I finished the color work and was ready for the heel flap.

The heel flap and heel turning were no problem, but picking up and knitting the sides were the last straw. I had had it. I read the pattern and tried 10 different times. I read the article in the Cast On magazine I had brought with me and saw the line that talked about color choices. I had read it before, but something drew me to it again. "Pick light colors" for the sock so that it is easier to assess for Level II. Is navy blue a light color? SHIT! Now I have wasted all of that time and energy and I will have to do it again. Who the hell invented this sock anyway? Why would anyone want to make it?

I clear my head and decide that this sock was a "learning process". It was done to make the final sock a "better sock". Yeah, right; whatever.

I love arrrrrgggggghhhhh-ile socks!