I’ve finally made enough progress on my Pillars of Fire socks to have something to report.

I’m loving the pattern. It’s easy to follow, easy to memorize and very…. flowy. It practically crawls up the foot. Not in a creepy crawly way, but in a sexy, sensual way. Because socks? Can totally be sexy. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If you haven’t already, check out Terry Ross Designs. She’s got some fantastic patterns up for grabs, many of which will work well for varigated yarns.

However, while I’m diggin’ the pattern, I’m a bit torn on the yarn. Maybe it’s because all the hype about the Wollmeise has raised by expectations to unreasonable heights. I can’t say a thing against the colors. They’re incredible. The more I knit, the more I like it. The colors flow and blend perfectly. I don’t like red, but I like this. That should really say it all. I also like the way the fabric is knitting up, firm but flexible, and I have high hopes that it will soften up quite a bit when washed. When these are said and done, they should be fantastic on the feet.

However, there’s something to be said for how a yarn feels while you’re knitting. The biggest reason I don’t ever knit with acrylic? Because I can’t stand how it feels on my hands. I’m finding the Wollmeise to be incredibly cottony, and hard on my hands. Not acrylic hard, but not as soft as I would expect from 100% wool. As I knit, I find myself just slathering my hands in lotion. (Cozy Stitches, by the way, has some fantastic crafter’s lotion. I highly recommend it.) Also, the yarn splits like crazy. I keep sticking the needle through the plies, and then end up having to pull it out and try and get everything all straightened out so I can get my needle in the right way. At one point, I found myself considering gnawing through some of the plies just so I wouldn’t have to deal with untangling everything.

Overall, I’ll definitely be knitting with this again - it’s just too beautiful not to - but I’m probably going to be darn cranky with it half the time.

I kind of wish I had more to report in regards to photos, especially since I’m learning to use the camera and taking most of the shots myself. However, my Dream in Color Baby should be showing up later this week, and then I plan on casting on for Irtfa’s Shawl. And then, and then my friends, we will be swimming in pictures.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for rouge Hounds of Tindalos. I discovered today the my own dear Fluffy has a sweet tooth for socks.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 10:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.