Fall is finally here, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at all the trees that haven’t changed color yet.  I’m putting my summer clothes away and pulling out all my sweaters and scarves.  Downtown Salem is off-the-hook crazy, in the grip of Halloween madness.  It’s annoying for a lot of locals because simple things we take for granted like driving down the street or getting a table in a restaurant become difficult and arduous.  I have a strict no-leaving-Salem weekend policy during October because, while getting out of Salem isn’t a problem, getting back in is.  The movie Bridesmaids is playing across the bridge in Beverly this Saturday night but I’m not going to go! I think this weekend is going to be the worst of all because Halloween falls on a Monday this year so everyone will turn it into a long weekend celebration. Bring on the crazy! I’ll be at home watching ghost hunter-type shows and knitting some socks. Say hello to my sock-in-progress, Grumperina’s Jaywalker. 

This is the second time I cast on for this sock. The first time I started it, I cast on 76 stitches, which is the smallest size on the pattern. I knit all the way down to the heel shaping before unraveling the whole thing and starting over.  This. Sock. Was. Huge. Huge! I could tell the leg was a little, shall we say roomy, but when the sock came halfway down my foot and I wasn’t even done shaping the heel, I knew there was a problem.  I started over and cast on 60 stitches onto #1 (US) dpns.  I know I’m committing blasphemy here, but *looks around nervously* I don’t bother knitting a test swatch for socks. It’s a gamble, I know.  This time I lost. 

I cast on 60 stitches, because plain socks on #1 dpns fit me. I know the zigzag pattern pulls in a little but I’ve been trying this sock on as I go along and it fits. I was able to catch up to my previous stopping point at the heel in a day and I’m working toward the toe now. I divided the stitches on 4 needles, 15 stitches per needle. I knit the zigzag pattern as follows:

Rnd 1 Knit all stitches. Rnd 2 k f/b, k5, dd, k5, k f/b.

This is a lot of fun to knit and I love seeing the color changes. I’m using Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Currier and Ives colorway. I was attracted to this color because of its festive Christmas palette, but it’s muted.  The colors go from darks to lights, reds and greens, but shot through with sky blue and cream.  I’m surprised at how the sock is turning out. The blues are a little more prominent than the greens. The red is dominant, while the blue and green jostle for attention, and the white makes frequent guest appearances throughout. 

I’m having fun zipping along with this pattern, which barely requires any more attention than plain sock knitting. There’s only one problem here: I didn’t order enough yarn.  It gets worse: I made this mistake for not one, but two sock patterns.  Remember the Almondine sock in my previous post? It’s patiently waiting for its mate, while I impatiently wait for another skein of STR in Blackbird. You see, I picked out the yarn first, and the patterns second. One hank is usually enough for plain socks, but no, I had to get fancy.  Likewise, I can’t complete the Jaywalkers until the second skein of Currier and Ives arrives.  I’ve been cyberstalking my BMFA order hoping to see the status change to “Shipped” but it’s been almost two weeks and no change. I think they may be at Stiches East, so I might have a little bit of a wait before my yarn comes.

In the meantime I’ll work on my short-sleeved cardigan some more.  And I’ll go downtown and enjoy the Halloween excitement. This is my favorite time of year and the novelty of downtown Salem’s October atmosphere hasn’t worn off yet.  Last Saturday I caved in and temporarily suspended my boycott on $5 fried dough. It was delicious. I also ran into this guy, one of my favorite comic book/movie characters:

Hellboy! He called me Darlin’. 😉