Thanks to everyone who has participated in my stash sale so far – there is still some yarn left, so check it out if you haven’t!

Late Saturday night I cast on for my first pair of socks this winter.

The pattern is “Little Pumpkins,” and the yarn is Wollmeise 80/20 in Kurbis.

First, comments on the pattern.  It’s translated from German, so some of the wording and chart symbols are different from the usual US pattern, but nothing that can’t be figured out (the first cable is especially challenging, I recommend reading the pattern page on Ravelry for an explanation of what it means.)  Other than that, the pattern is super easy to memorize, and goes fairly quickly.  It sort of looks like pumpkins… more so if it is stretched out.

It is knit on 5 dpns, and I usually only use 4.  I’m actually having some trouble – I think when knitting with so many DPNs, I tend to hold my wrist differently, causing some cramping.  I’m trying to focus on keeping them upright when I knit.  The pattern calls for 4 repeats of the pumpkins (2 pumpkins per repeat) but I think I will do three… I don’t like my socks that tall.

Then again, the cramping could be caused by the yarn.  I’m about to have an unpopular opinion, so watch out!  Wollmeise has super lovely colors, but the yarn itself is really strange.  I’m not sure that I like it.  It has a very hard twist.  The yarn is not very resilient, and in fact doesn’t feel so much like wool to me.  I have to consciously stop myself from knitting it too tightly to compensate (I think my fingers think it’s cotton) and I’m a loose knitter usually.  I’m hoping I can power through these socks – the color is keeping me going, it’s actually even more saturated than it looks here!

Of course, considering how hard this yarn is to get now (I got mine when it wasn’t so bad, long ago) I’m unlikely to get anymore, so this shouldn’t be a problem.  I am not the sort to stalk sock yarn – there are so many lovely indie dyers that I can always get my fix through Etsy… and not being primarily a sock knitter, I tend to go through sock yarn at a pretty slow pace.

Finally, here is a better picture of my silken scabbard.

I’m much furthur along now – I am approaching the split for the arms.  It’s sort of slow going, as top down sweaters always are at this point.  The yarn is behaving nicely, but I am concerned about my gauge loosening up, so I’m taking frequent measurements.  I can’t say this is the quickest knit ever, and I thought the neck directions were a little confusing, but I am enjoying it, and would recommend the pattern so far.