Monkey business ...

My first Monkey Sock is done - and boy oh boy was that ever a near thing! Before I get to that, here's some pictures of the original ball and second skein - as well as a little bit of knitting:



As mentioned last time, the wool is from Koigu and I am just amazed at how wonderfully this knits up. It's exceptionally springy and while that made for a heavier sock than I had planned, I'm still quite satisfied with it.


You can see that the twisted rib really shows the torquing that comes with knitting in the round - but that sorts itself out when worn and I also expect a good chunk of it will go away when I wash it. The twist in the wool makes the stitches really stand out - definitely a plus when working this pattern!


Very evident here - both in the heel and the gusset. As always, there's a GREAT Knitty article that talks about the types of twists in yarns and how that affects the way stitches show up in the final fabric. Based on this article, I'll say that the Koigu has a "Z-twist" and that's what gives that strong verticality to the stitching.

Now, about me running out of yarn (almost). I was up late on Friday knitting away as I knew I was very close to finishing. I had one last repeat of the lace pattern before starting the toe decreases and had been keeping an "eagle eye" on the remainder of the ball. About two or three rows in to the decreases, I squeezed the ball. PANIC!!!! There was NOT much LEFT! I've got sixteen more rows to knit and there's a real likelihood that I'll run out! I knit and knit and knit - and when I still had about 8 rows to go, I stopped. I couldn't take it at midnight on a Friday. I put down the sock and came back to it on Saturday. Here's the result:



For reference, that's an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper. That mini skein has, AT MOST, 2 yards of yarn. Holy cow. I've never been this close to running out before and I sure hope I don't get this close on the next one! Certainly makes a case for knitting both at the same time - but I'll also likely be knitting a little tighter on the second sock.

Regardless - progress on the Monkeys is at 60% as I've cast on the second sock and make it through the first two repeats. It looks remarkably like the topmost photo in this post. :-)