

In Which the Pirate Begins A New Sock.
Posted by Pirate in sock, Stitch Patterns, textured, Textured SocksI bought this skein of Socks That Rock lightweight in the "Smokey Mountain Morn" colourway at Maryland Sheep and Wool in 2012, and last week decided to wind it up for a new traveling sock. The pattern, I thought to myself, should have some texture to it but a relatively easy stitch pattern to memorize, and after searching through Ravelry for what seemed like days I finally settled on Stanton. There were some runners-up that went into my library for later, too: Menehune Cobblestone, the Harris Tweed socks, and the very-popular Hermione's Everyday Socks.
On Friday morning, Michael and I boarded a plane to Las Vegas for our friends' wedding, and I cast on and began to knit. (I was very pleased with myself for remembering how to do a slip-stitch cast on without having to look it up, too!) On Saturday I sat by the pool with the girls and knit...
...and on Monday, when we had a five hour return trip on a plane without in-flight entertainment, I knit and knit and knit some more. The stitch pattern is fantastic. It was very easy to memorize (though I'm still figuring out how to 'read' it when I make the inevitable attention-wandering mistakes) and the texture works great with the spiraling colours. I'm just a few repeats away from the heel flap, which continues the textured pattern instead of going to the usual standard slip-stitch flap, and I'm excited to see how the colours will play out over the flap and gusset when the number of stitches changes.
I did feel a little guilty about starting a new sock when I have two already on the needles, but the Stripey Striped Sock is terrible for travel knitting as the yarn makes my hands ache, and I really didn't like the idea of dropping a stitch of the Jaywalkers mid-flight. Both of those socks have been ongoing for way too long, though, and I really should buckle down and finish them.

Socks that ROck! Love the yarn. Love the pattern.
Plane knitting - for the win!