The Fair Isle Vortex

As Sandra so perfectly put it, Fair Isle knitting is like a vortex - you get sucked in, knit a ton, and no time passes. I have no idea why Fair Isle knitting goes so fast. Is it the excitement to see the pattern develop? The constantly changing rows to keep your attention? Knitting with two hands? I'm not sure why, but I always seem to get quite a bit of Fair Isle done in a pretty short time. The evidence:

The Fake Isle hat. Chart 1 is complete, and now I move on to Chart 2 and start the decreases! All this from watching a few hours of TiVo. I have renewed my love for Fair Isle. The hat should be done on my lunch hour today if all goes well!

The Zebra socks were gifted to their new owner last night as well.

Pattern: Madder Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by (my hero) Nancy Bush
Yarn: Koigu colors P312 (white/black/grey) and P323 (green/black)
Needle: #2 (3.0mm) 32" KnitPicks Circular via Magic Loop
Changes: Did short row heel and a bit shorter leg.

Hubby loves them. They turned out a few rows too long on one foot (and I did count rows to ensure they were the same) but I think that is because one of his feet is bigger than the other. I'm hoping with a wash and light dry they might tighten up a little. I love, love, love Koigu! The variegated colors are truly variegated - no pooling, flashing or anything of any kind. The yarn is squishy, cushy soft and bouncy. I got these skeins at the Maryland Festival last year. They are Koigu mill ends, and were quite a steal compared with the normal price. There was plenty to make a pair of socks for his big man feet. I have enough of the grey/black left to use for contrasting heels/toes for another pair and a full skein (about 120yd) of the green left!

I really like the Madder Rib pattern - very simple, but it makes a different rib that isn't typical.

That officially completes the socks I had on the needles. I have a bit of research to do on my Colorwork Challenge socks before I cast on. I'm using Regia Silk that I picked up at Stitches. I traded for two additional balls, so I now have 2 skeins of each color - more than enough if I need to size up the pattern! Folk Socks will come out as well as Folk Knitting In Estonia (library!) to see which pattern has the better fit for me (and my whopping size 9.5 feet!) as I really don't want to mess with adjusting a colorwork pattern for size. I'm hoping to cast on tonight if all goes well!