My Nemesis

I finally finished them.

These socks have pretty much been the bane of my ... okay, that's a little melodramatic, "bane" is probably over the top, but dang y'all, these socks have been a bitch to knit.

I started them back in May of 2011.   They were going along really nicely -- in fact I was feeling pretty smug about them at first.  "Oh the yarn is so pretty, oh it takes the patterning so well!" I cooed.  But I cast on the smaller size (64 sts), and I wasn't more than, say FOUR INCHES in before I realized that they would be too small.

Well, dangit, I says.  And I ripped them back and started over.  In late June (this is still 2011, mind you).

Sometime during that Fall I realized that I had carpet beetles.  (Can we talk about how much I hate carpet beetles?)   The yarn and the sock both had holes.  There was much violent cursing, and maybe a wee spot of fit throwing.

The socks got a VERY long time-out in my freezer.  V. v. long time-out.

Last February I decided to haul them back out and finish the durned things (February being for Finishing and all).  So, out comes the recently defrosted Sock #1.  I repaired the holes, and started knitting with some seriously damaged yarn.   Every few feet I'd have to skip a section anywhere from 8" to 10" long, to avoid the holes and have enough room to weave in the ends.

The first sock had a LOT of ends to weave in.  (The saving grace of this story is that the second skein of yarn was undamaged.  Shwew.)

So, I finished the first sock last February and set it aside because March is for Making Mates.  After all of the work to produce the one sock, I was just... not in love.  It was meh.  Okay.  This stupid sock was way too much work for just "meh."

Turns out March is also for Faffing Off when one is angry at the socks, because I never got any farther than this:

Until about two weeks ago.  Because damned if I was going to walk into another February with these bastards still on the needles.

I seriously considered setting the whole thing on fire, but Koren talked me out of it.

The second sock did come together MUCH more smoothly.  The only real problem I had with this one was the inch and a half that I ripped back due to inattentive patterning.  (Turns out that I wasn't able to read fan-fiction and follow this pattern at the same time.  Whoops.)

I do want to say that the problems (which were legion) that I had with these socks were NOT because it is a poorly written or designed pattern.  The designer did not summon carpet beetles into my home, nor is it her fault that I took leave of my senses, and lost my grip on the reality that is the size of my ankles.  The pattern's swell, I just had a rough time.

That said though, it might behoove me to pay more attention to what things are named.  If there are socks out there called "Kryptonite," well, let's just say I won't be knitting them.