the best song in the world; Koigu socks

1. Thank you so much to the people who gave me suggestions for what to do with my Koigu. I decided to follow my gut , and cast on for Go With the Flows. I got some great suggestions, but didn't use any of them. (sorry!) There's a reveal of the sock (with photo) later on in the post.

2. I have the most awesome sock pal, ever. (Well, along with Ms. Swim, who sent me the perfect Koigu socks last Autumn.) She sent me a link to a bowerbird song! And believe me, this song is wonderful. It's amazing. It made me laugh and dance, and brightened up what is an otherwise icky week. Please listen. It's worth it, I swear. And listen all the way through. There is a dance in there. I'm going to learn it, and be the class of the next party I attend. (This will make you laugh after you listen to the song.)

But back to the (co-)best sock pal ever thing, this song is so wonderful that she could send me ill-fitting burlap socks, and I wouldn't care. But please don't. ;-)

3. To add some context to the above, beyond the fact that I assume you're aware of the name of this blog, it might be nice for you to read my first post. It's the one linked in the sidebar, so if you've already read that, then you probably know enough about bowerbirds.

4. By the way, the episode of Nova about bowerbirds ("Flying Casanovas") has been in reruns lately. In fact, my TiVo recorded it as a suggestion yesterday! I just might have to watch it again. I meant to mention this earlier, but it slipped my mind. But check your local PBS stations, to see if there are still any upcoming reruns. It's worth a watch.

5. Oh yeah. The sock. I went with my gut and am knitting Go With the Flows again. (It's from an '05 issue of IK. I'll dig that up, along with the designer's name, eventually.) It's going to be a very busy sock, but in a good kind of way. Even in plain stockinette this would have been a busy sock, so I might as well go for something stretchy and fun, right? Here's a photo at 6 pattern repeats:



That's my arm, not my leg. (I'm not freakishly skinny, though I am that freakishly pale.) I didn't bother to swatch, because the pair I made before fit just fine. I'm finding that Koigu on size 1 needles gets me a looser gauge than Kroy on the same needles. That's fine, as ribbing is forgiving. But I think I'm going to switch to size 0 needles fairly soon, so the bottom of the leg has a snugger fit. Depending on how much of a change that makes, I may keep going with the smaller needles down the foot.

Oh, and I'm 3 rows away from putting Vertical Stripes in hibernation. I'll pull out Ingeborg this weekend, and should have an updated photo of that early next week. Oh the excitement! (I'm looking forward to rows with slightly fewer stitches, even if pattern repeats are 15 rounds longer.)