Murex

I joined my first yarn club this summer. It ran from February to April. Three patterns. Three gorgeous skeins of yarn. A shawl, a pair of socks and a lovely pair of fingerless mitts. This post is about the socks, named Murex.

The yarn is a gorgeous bright dark blue semi-solid to my eye although I've seen it referred to as purple. It is very lovely and I'm totally enjoying knitting it. The toe-up sock is my first, my other two pairs so far have begun at the top and while I've enjoyed them, it's difficult to judge exactly how far to go with the leg before you'll run out of yarn at the toe. The other thing I'm doing with these socks is working from a single ball knitting two at a time, one from the outside, the other from the inside of the yarn cake. Not so difficult if the yarn is regularly unwound to avoid tangling.

The centre front of the sock is an interesting pattern of increases and double yarn overs to create an effect that reminds me of a skirt when all the stitches are finally purled together on the last pattern row. This creates a slight puff and as I keep trying them on for size I'm getting rather more excited to be coming toward the end of this sock finally.

The knitting of this sock had stalled when I decided to knit the  o w l s  jumper. I had also created a goal for myself to complete this by the end of last week so I could begin a mystery sock knit-along. It didn't happen. I got the first clue of the new mystery sock done though! Other than doing that, I hardly managed a row or two each day last week. But, this weekend I've really ploughed ahead and finished the last three pattern repeats and am about halfway through the cuff, on goal to finish today. Then I can move on to the second clue for the KAL. The second clue was released sometime overnight and I am making myself leave it alone until Murex is complete. Then I'll take some photos and finally this post will be live, as I've been writing it over a period of time - something I don't usually do but it's not a bad idea.

I did indeed finish Murex on Monday. It's been so cold here this week I think I've worn them most days since then. It is now Friday night, which is why I have no photos to show. My only other pair of handknit socks are in need of washing.  Now it's time to get back to the KAL.

P.S: I started another project last night, just because I can and as I mentioned it's been rather wintery. I'm sick of the old polar fleeces and want something warm and pretty to wear. I'm not sure if I mentioned having bought some Malabrigo Rios earlier in the year with plans to make a particular cardigan. The more I thought about it, the more I went off it and then read some comments about it on Ravelry this week confirming my conclusions. But this new pattern I've found should work better for me. Yay!