Stalled

Despite having enough needles to make an army's worth of socks at once, it's long been an unwritten rule of mine to have only one pair of socks on the needles at any given time. (A notable exception is the Get Smart Socks I had abandoned to frog a couple years ago and finally finished back in February.) But I'm about to break that rule. 

Why? These:

There's absolutely nothing wrong with them. They're pretty. The DragonFibers Superwash Sock yarn gives me nothing to complain about.

But I'm bored. Or I'm something. I don't know. 

I cast on April 16, blasted through the toe increases, started a decorative stitch that I ended up not liking on the yarn, and ripped back to the toes. Let them sit a few days. Picked them back up and got them to the gusset fairly quickly, then stopped knitting again. Picked them up again and blew through the gusset. Then they sat again. (It's not entirely uncommon for me to let socks sit a few days before launching into the heels, but all this other sitting is really unusual!) Picked them up to get the heels going. Knit a couple rows. Let them sit. Picked up the heel flap stitches. Let them sit. Knit a couple rows more. And they've been sitting since. 

Is it the colorway? It's called Shy -- and it is -- and maybe that's part of it but not any big part. 

Is it the yarn? It's a hand-dyed superwash merino and feels nice enough. I was so happy to buy it back in April 2008 at the Village Yarn & Tea -- before they moved -- before they closed. Come to find out that DragonFibers discontinued this yarn back in 2008. The price sticker indicates I got it on sale, and that's probably why.

Is it the pattern? Nope. Although I must express some disappointment that the all-over decorative stitch I had been planning ended up not being a good fit for the yarn. I had believed the color changes were subtle enough to work on a more complicated pattern, but they're actually just distinct enough for the pattern to get more lost than I wanted.

Nothing's really wrong with the socks. Nothing's quite right, either.

So I'm going to let them sit a little longer. And I'm breaking my unwritten rule and starting another pair of socks. The yarn...

 

...Indie Dyer's Very Veggie colorway, added to my stash as part of the giant yarn purchase my mom and sister and I indulged in two winters ago. This colorway really appealed to me the moment I saw it -- even though I was viewing a web image. It didn't surprise me when it appealed to my mother-in-law, too, earlier this spring when I told her to look through my stash for yarn she'd like me to knit into socks for her.

Here's hoping it helps get my needles humming again!