I have done some cable work or other complicated stitches before but the idea of lace work had been intimidating to me. To increase my nervousness, a friend of mine asked me to do Monkey Socks by Cookie A. as a sample for her yarn trunk show in California.  While I felt confident in my abilities to knit socks, this would be my first pattern with any type of lace work. I would also do anything to help Machete Shoppe as she is a wondrous human being. Always willing to try something new and be challenged I took home the gorgeous yarn, downloaded the pattern and cast on. It took me a few tries to get out of my normal sock habit of beginning them at the toes and knitting both socks at the same time, although I did do the slight adaptation of the pattern for magic loop method.

Once I got to the actual lace work I did have to frog it a couple of times. I wanted them to be as perfect as I could possibly make them!  I have that personality type where I need to please people. It is sometimes a blessing and a curse but almost always feels like a curse.

After I got the hang of the lace pattern it was quite lovely to knit while doing some Netflix binging. I kid you not, I finished them both in 16 days.

Now that they are cast off I am in love with how the lace work turned out.  I can’t wait to cast on my next pair of lacy socks.  Only problem is that Fall is right around the corner so its time to put energy into winter Holiday gifts.

I also took this opportunity to buy my first pair of sock blockers. Mind you, this is my first time blocking anything! I must say they did look better once they had been blocked. These photos are all post blocking, except for the couple below.

It is either placebo effect or the lighting that makes me think the blocking appears so much nicer.

Regardless, this pattern is a lot of fun to knit, I thought it went extremely quick for size 2 needles and fingering weight yarn.  I would recommend this for knitters trying out their first lace pattern.  Also a good pattern for lace knitters who want to try socks.

Thanks for perusing 🙂

Susan

Water and Wool

Pattern: Monkey Socks by Cookie A.

Yarn: Peachy King by Machete Shoppe