Mint choc chip – MINT CHOC CHIP! – self-striping sock yarn from Middle Earth Yarns. If anyone wants me, I’ll be licking my wool…

I have finally made a start on my Sockapalooza socks:

The yarn I’m using is Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino in Fiery Fuchsia. It has the brightness I wanted, and even has a bit of orange, green and purple in it. Thus it is perfect.

I had originally planned to do some stranded knitting for these socks. But given that this creates an extra layer and more warmth, and my pal wanted finer socks because she lives in a warm climate, I think that would sadly be a bad idea. So I’m contenting myself with knitting them long in the leg which she really likes. I never go above 18cm for the leg usually, as I get BORED beyond belief, but these will be at leat 20cm. The pattern is the snappily (!) named Diagonal Cross-Rib Socks by Ann Budd, taken from Favorite Socks. The pattern as written makes MANSIZE socks, but going down a needle size makes them the perfect dimensions for my pal. And they are cleverly started on larger needles so that there is plenty of calf room. As I said, my pal likes longer socks, so this will do very nicely indeed.

I got a reply from my saviour pal and she has no preference for cables or lace. So I’m pretty sure if I emailed her to ak her opinion on the Rowan v. Opal debate it would be a similar answer. It would be kind of nice to have a more demanding pal. Not in a “you will knit me this sock in this yarn and be quick about it, wench!” sort of way, but just so I wasn’t sitting here with a ball of yarn in each hand and muttering “Opal… Rowan… Opal… Rowan…” to myself. I want to knit the bestest socks in the universe, of course, which is the problem.

I can see that the preference in the comments is for Opal because of the extremely apple-ish colour of the yarn, but still a little voice in my head is whispering “4ply soft!” to me. (Incidentally, it was surprising in a nice way to get so many comments on my last Sockapalooza-related post. I’ve found so many blogs to read now, plus the Knit Pligg. It’s a wonder I manage to finish anything..!)

But yarn colour aside, there is the issue of the pattern. And it will be lace! I will admit to being rather fond of leafy lace patterns. When I was writing the post on Monday, I had the Embossed Leaves socks from Favorite Socks (and Interweave Knits Winter ’05) in mind. Alison is knitting these and they look lovely. Kate suggested Elfine’s Socks, which are also very pretty and also leafy!

However, while looking for pattern ideas for my pal’s socks, I came acrosss Evelyn Clark’s Waving Lace Socks (also in Favorite Socks – on the cover, in fact!). They aren’t very leafy, but I am rather taken with the scallop-rib border. Whether they’ll be knit in Rowan or Opal remains to be seen, so watch this space!