Castonitis?

I gave into it last night. How pretty are these?

It's been awhile since I've worked on a sock. I justified the cast on because these are a long overdue knit for my sister. I've been meaning to cast on for them for almost 18 months. Long time to put something off... but the original yarn I picked up was not what I had hoped ,and I had more recently picked up a similar colorway that is much cleaner and less muddy looking. It took me awhile to find a good pattern to pair with it. Thus, they are being called the Overdue socks. Her birthday was 01 October and I hope to have these finished before Giftmas so that they may be a 4th quarter of the year gift for her.

So far, I am loving this pattern for highly variegated sock yarn. You know, the kind we all can not resist but then once we get it home and try to find a pattern for it, very few work beside the basic vanilla sock and a few that have been made specifically for variegation. (CookieA's Monkey Socks and Grumperina's Jaywalkers jump immediately to mind. There are some others, even an entire book of patterns dedicated to them. Note: I have not read the book nor do I own it. Looking through the Ravelry page, it didn't strike me as anything too terribly different then patterns already offered...)

The ones made for variegated yarn all seem so...similar. I think that's why the Aquaphobia socks have grabbed me; they stand out from the chevron patterns and biased stitch patterned socks that are usually offered up. The speckles are fun and allow colors that wouldn't usually touch in a colorway to be right next to each other. I can definitely see myself making a pair of these for my mother out of the yarn I have leftover from her first pair, and at least a pair for myself. I bought some LE Lorna's Laces from JBW last month that would be lovely in the pattern. It's orange, brown and a lovely reddish purple. I can think of at least two more sock yarns I have in stash that would work well for this.

Anywho. Back to the specific colorway of the socks I'm working on... portions of it remind me of the colors from Starry Night. Love it. It hurts a bit to use this yarn for my sister since I bought it for me, but I keep telling myself there will be yarn leftover. Her feet are the same size as mine and I rarely use more then 210yds for a pair of socks. Which means I could very likely knit myself a shorter pair out of the same yarn or use it for another smallish fingering weight project. I am already mourning the "loss" of this yarn when it leaves my home. However, I think my sister will be thrilled with the colorway as blue and yellow are her two most favorite colors.

On the other hand, it feels great to know that once these are done being knit, the FO will not be sticking around in my house taking up space. As it is, I have to be honest and clear out FOs that do not fit quite right and either toss them or reclaim the yarn. It's funny how when you make something, at the time it seems great and you have no complaints. But as you gain experience and have something to compare to, you realize that maybe that sweater/socks/hat/etc isn't quite as great as you originally thought. Suddenly, it goes unworn sitting in a drawer taking up valuable real estate. (If it wasn't already doing so from the time it came off needles!) I have a few pairs of socks that definitely fall into this category as well as a couple of sweater knits. Green Gable without the HBD I should have put in, I'm lookin' at you.

Because, really, the true testament of how successful a knit was is if you wear it and how often you go to it. (Process knitters might take offense to that, but I'm a bit of both. I find flubs and flops to be important learning opportunities as well as entertainment. However, the ultimate success of a knit is in the finished object and its wearability.) Out of all my my FOs, only a handful get worn on a regular basis. The rest have just been sitting in the closet. I've been hesitant to clear out the "duds," but really, why should I be? They are more personal in that I made them, I put time into them, but at the end of the day, is a sweater I made that I'm not wearing any different then a t-shirt I haven't worn in ages? I have pictures of all my FOs; even without the actual knit, I have evidence they existed that I can reference. (And the photos do not take up physical space. Only on my hard drive and my Ravelry page/Flickr account.)

Definitely something to think about as I'm working on decluttering the rest of my life.