A Knit-Along

So I've spent a lot of time knitting baby things lately. But, in the midst of the cute knits obsession, I also bought one of my first knitting books: Sock Innovation. It's loaded with interesting and intricate patterns, many of which are far more lacy and charted than the socks I've done so far. I can't say that I was afraid to try them, just that I knew I wouldn't be taking them anywhere with me and would only be working on them at home where I could have the charts laid out and give them my undivided attention.

Then there's the matter of choosing which pattern to try first. So I was browsing around Ravelry and found a group devoted to a knit-along specifically for that book with a pattern selected for the current month. The chosen book pattern for August was Vilai, which really appealed to me and I decided to dive in. Of course, I was still wrapping up baby knits so I couldn't give the socks much attention, but I started anyway. And then there was suddenly only 2 days left in the month of August and I was just to the heel of the second sock. Fortunately for me, I had the 31st as a day off so I had plenty of knitting time to finish them up just before the deadline.

So these are my very fraternal Vilai socks in Jojoland Melody Superwash wool. I know they only look slightly related, but I've checked the labels on the two balls of yarn twice and they were the same colorway. I love them anyway. And I actually really like how the yarn worked with the pattern.. Something about the pattern reminded me of stained glass and I thought the gradual color changes in the yarn would work well with it. I'm amazed that no one else on Ravelry has used this yarn for this pattern yet, but maybe it's not that popular for socks.

So I'm back on the sock knitting bandwagon, which is probably good because there are more sock kits coming and I still have some Dorothy socks in progress. This knit-along thing might be a good motivator but it's also a dangerous distraction!