The Yarn Mirage

By the middle of 2011, I figured out that my life consisted of 3 important activities:

1. knitting socks designed by Cookie A,
2. planning to knit socks designed by Cookie A,
3. perusing Ravelry to see other knitters' Cookie A-designed socks.

Imagine my excitement when I learned there was a Cookie A sock club that sent you surprise yarn and not one, but TWO exclusive patterns every other month. (There's a cookie recipe in there, too.) Sadly, the club was closed. I signed on to the waiting list, anyway. I'd already knit Monkey, Angee, Cauchy, BFF, Rhombus, Glynnis, Pomatomus, and Mona, but I wanted more, more, more!

In the meantime, I knit three pairs of [yawn] k3, p2 ribbed socks. (I do love the Felici self-striping, though.) Honestly, how long can you expect someone to k3, p2? I attempted a perfectly fine pair of mittens in the most delicious orange cashmere you can imagine. I lost interest after one mitten. I guess I'll use it for the hand that holds the dog leash. I attempted to make progress on a sweater. Somewhere in this process, my knitting mojo went down the toilet.

I got a hold of Cubist. Hooray!! Photocopied and enlarged charts, cut them out, and taped them into my chart holder. Nope. Couldn't get it to look right. Kept looking. Devon. Aha! Nope. Shifting over on certain rows killed me. WAH! Was I losing my way? Was my Cookie A sock knitting ability gone?

Then, I got the email that the Sock Club for 2012 was open! This will cure my problem, for sure. Alas, the patterns and yarn came the same day. What delicious yarn! H

VICTORY is mine!!

I have conquered Rhombus. Woo hoo! I made it all work out and am proudly on the foot of my second sock. Victory is mine, and it tastes sweet. Can you imagine that I may even make these again?

Taking a Break

Taking a break from a pattern that was above my skill level (Rhombus) to make these simple k3, p2 ribs. I absolutely adore self-striping yarn, but get bored with the ribbing. I need to figure out a more interesting pattern for striping socks.

Love these Cauchys

I loved knitting these Cauchy socks from Sock Innovation. I gave them to my friend Stephanie, who plans on wearing them to sleep. Of course, I would prefer she wear them out and about so the world can see these, but a gift is a gift.

I will make this pattern again, but I'd do it with lighter colored yarn. The Malabrigo Velvet Grape was a tad too dark for the pattern.

It's Cookie A Mania in my life!!

My husband is a knitting widow. My kids are without a mother. I seem to be knitting Cookie A socks every waking moment. It started innocently enough. On a school snow day in February 2010, a friend brought her knitting over. "Knitting socks?" I asked curiously. I had knit baby socks back in the 90s, but never attempted adult socks. The shaping seemed like it needed to be perfect, and perfection is not my thing. I felt a rush. I can't describe it.

Looking back, I realize that that very day in February 2010 was the day my then dormant obsessive-sock-knitting gene was turned on. The obsession only grew. Soon, ribbed socks weren't good enough. I wanted some oomph and craved a challenge. I did the Primavera sock, which was sort of fun. On one fateful day, my friend Carol (the same one who was knitting the sock on the snow day) suggested I try the Monkey sock pattern by a designer who goes by the name "Cookie A." I was hooked. One Monkey pair, and then another. I bought Cookie's book Sock Innovation, and started to get knitting on Angee but found out that there were other obsessive Cookie A knitters.

So, I'm knitting my way through Cookie A's latest book Knit.Sock.Love. in a Ravelry knit-along.



In between scheduled knits, I'm doing socks from Sock Innovation. So far, I've done Cauchy, Angee, and am working on Glynis.