STR Gather Moss Anyway

I really hate the picture from yesterday, so I have to post again to push that picture downwards! LOL.

I don't often show works in progress, unless there's an issue. Well, there's been an issue for a year. Last year after my surgery, the wonderful Cindy of Noro Enablers Anonymous brought me a skein of Socks That Rock, already wound up, ready to go.

And I was ready to go, but I wanted to not rush it, and find the perfect pattern (and finish some things first).

I searched and searched for a (free) pattern. I found patterns for STR Medium weight. I found gorgeous patterns for nearly solid STR. I found MANY patterns I wanted to knit, but knew they wouldn't work with this beauty. I finally found one free pattern for this yarn weight but I was a little skeptical. Back in February when I squashed my toe and went to the hospital, I printed the pattern and started it while waiting in the ER. I was LOVING the yarn.

Until I got to where the colours stop going diagonal and start going into vertical pools. It's hard to see in the photos, but each of the colour pools is actually made up of one row stripes of two colours. The turquoise is light and dark turquoise, the pinkish is magenta and green I think, and the yellow is yellow and lilac. There was no change in the stitch count, no change in the needle size, so the dye job on the yarn was doing this all by itself. Mmmm.At first, I kept going, saying "This was one of the most thoughtful and appreciated gifts I've gotten in a long time, I don't care what it looks like, I just want to wear this cozy yarn on my feet". I was hoping the pattern would change again. I actually did knit some of the sock pattern I had printed up (oh, about four rows), but ripped it back to the ribbing and kept going, hoping that just a 'plain' sock would show the yarn to it's best, rather than trying to fight a texture onto it. But after awhile, I just couldn't take the vertical pooling anymore. It was shifting, but way too slowly.

So, I hit the pause button earlier this spring. I thought. I joined Ravelry. I searched more, bought more sock books. But, the thing with socks is that they don't usually vary in their stitch count by very much as you work through the sock. I could do a lace pattern that adds sts on some rows and takes them away on another, but then there's texture issues, and really, not enough variation in the stitch count to throw off the pooling.

Then, I found it. Entrelac socks! We had a workshop in the winter/spring with the Georgetown guild; it's something I've never done and have thought about it, but didn't find any patterns that really turned me on enough to learn something new (despite loving learning new things, they still have to have a reason to learn them). Back to Ravelry, and it turns out that I have two entrelac sock patterns from two different magazines---one mag which I rarely buy! And, if I remember, I bought that issue to read while I was in the ER during all the post-surgery complications, so how 'fateful' is that?! I still need to actually try entrelac, esp. in the round, but I am optimistic that it is the answer for this gorgeous yarn.

Something about the yarn makes me want to go back and change all the text colours to yellow, magenta and turquoise!! I LOVE the section of the turquoise; totally reminds me of our cruise!!