Over-the-Knee Stockings

I'll post a little here about my delightful journey with the over-the-knee socks, or you can read all of my life at my blog.

It must have been September or so when I started these suckers. I had a giant skein of alpaca yarn from Rebelle in Lexington. I had a really rough start, I left my bag open in the university barn and the dogs got into it and decided they like the taste of alpaca and the crunch of Brittany #3 knitting needles. It took a while to get back into the swing of the sock, but I did eventually. As I neared the heel of the first sock I realized that they were going to hit me about mid-knee, not a good place, so I started added repeats until they were full-on stockings. I ended up with 23 repeats of the eyelet "seam."

I had a trip to Chicago with the Clack Mountain String Band and friends planned for February so a few weeks before I really started knitting the heck out of those socks. It got down to the night before I was supposed to start driving at 6 am when I realized that my dear little ball of yarn wasn't going to make it to the toe. I thought about finishing the toe with a different yarn, which may have been wiser, and then fixing it when I got back. I ended up frogging up past the heel, taking out a repeat, and continuing. I ended up with cute socks to wear in Chicago, but also with a horribly misworn and felted heel.

So after I got home and got to the yarn store, the whole, sad foot was frogged to the ankle and restarted.

I finished off the foot and ended up very happy and with the warmest and tallest socks I'll ever own!