Yesterday was a most excellent knitting day here at the Casa de Cusser. All summer, I’ve been working on design samples, one after the other, many of which I can’t even talk about here until some time in December. They’ve been fun projects, and I’ve enjoyed making them, no doubt. Too many work projects in a row can make one a bit squirrelly, though. With all the note-taking, the directions-following (even if they’re your own directions), the need for a perfect finished object: after a while, a knitter needs to break free, you know? I try to have a fun, playful/mindless/doesn’t-have-to-be-perfect project to turn to, and with the end of the tea cozy, it was time for something new. I’ve been obsessing about self-striping sock yarns again, so I dug into the stash and found just the thing: an insanely bright self-striping sock yarn bought at the dreary end of winter last year. When I pulled out the skein to wind it, I was delighted to discover that it even came with a complimentary complementary stitch marker.

This here is String Theory Colorworks Force (BFL/silk/cashmere) in Solar Flare, and good lord, I think you’ll be able to see these socks from space. (She dyes non-eyeball-searing colourways, too: I think my next one may be Carbon.)

I decided on a straightforward toe-up sock in a k3p1 broken rib, and since I’m doing contrasting heels and toes (because large feet + yarn anxiety), I delved into Lara Neel’s book Sock Architecture to try my first afterthought heel (hence that wee bit of turquoise scrap yarn).

So that’s how I spent my Sunday: achieving Laundry Basket Zero (ah, laundry: such a grand feeling of accomplishment from not doing much at all) and working on the most insanely bright socks I’ve ever made. My brain thanks me, and you know, I’m strangely in love with this yarn in all its bloody-minded cheerfulness.