DPNs would be so much more fun to work on if they had a “send to back” button. Or better yet, “minimize.” Yesterday I knitted my first successful short-row toe and that was all I could think about (I did a figure-8 cast-on onto 4 needles instead of a provisional one, which in retrospect was probably a mistake.) The wrong needle was constantly poking out in front or getting tangled in the yarn in back.

I’m sure I have some needles somewhere here that would be suitable for magic loop instead, but I think I’ll be fine (really!) now that I’m past the toe. I actually really like the Harmony DPNs I’m using.

I’m knitting Malabrigo Sock in Indiecita and while I have doubts about how well it will hold up, due to its softness and all-merino content, it’s amazingly soft and yummy and gorgeous and has gotten me through reknitting the same toe three times. Why three?

#1: Cat Bordhi, damn your Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style knitting patterns! You’re a crazy, wonderful genius, but sometimes I like having a pattern all on one page instead of having to constantly turn to Master Topological Sock Recipe and then to Octopus Swirly Toe and then to the table of Key Numbers by Gauge and the glossary for LLinc and LRinc and back again… it feels like I’m doing my taxes! And after all that Schedule C and Form 1099 cross-referencing, I wound up with a strangely shaped toe with holes on either side, and decided to frog it.

#2: Ohhh, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, now I see that when you said the heel/toe cast on stitches should be 50% of the total foot circumference, you meant 50% on each needle. What a tiny, cute toe 32 stitches makes, though.

#3: Toe accomplished! 64 sts, short-rowed down to 12. That was fun! Maybe next I’ll try the forked heel.

Yeah, so I feel like hell is freezing over as I say this, but as you can see, I’m getting kind of interested in socks… mainly because they are going to be eminently practical in Wisconsin in the next few months. There’s a distinct possibility that my knitting will consist entirely of socks knit from worsted-weight wool (/alpaca/angora/yak/qiviut?) because I’m going to be unspeakably cold and miserable once it gets down to 20 below around here. The pattern I’m knitting is an unvented, Pomatomus-like (but stockinette-based) stitch modified from a dictionary stitch called something like “overlapping waves.”