The curse of the boyfriend socks

As I briefly mentioned last post, I've broken my sock-knitting cherry, so to speak. I'm knitting the pattern Treads (Ravelry link) by Kimberly Fairchild from Debbie Stoller's Son of Stitch 'n' Bitch for my boyfriend. You may or may not know about the boyfriend sweater curse, where if you knit a sweater for your boyfriend, the relationship is doomed to failure. It sort of makes sense... you work really hard on a sweater and your boyfriend doesn't appreciate all that work, so you feel resentful, and then eventually break up because you don't feel he cares about you. I just hope it's not the same for socks, though I did show him the pattern and the yarn I would be using, and he seemed to like both. Plus, I already made him a hat and scarf, and we're still going strong.

Anyway, the pattern is quite nice. It's very simple and elegant, but it has a cable detail that makes it interesting to knit. This is actually the first time I knit cables as well, so I'm popping two cherries with one stone! The leg of the sock is a simple 2x2 ribbing with two cables that curve down each side of the sock. Here's Kimberly Fairchild's original picture from the book:



And here's a crappy webcam picture of my first sock so far. I've completed two cables!



The yarn I'm using is Araucania's Ranco Solid (previously mentioned in this post) in the "Midnight" colourway. It's quite lovely, mostly black with hints of navy here and there, which looks quite nice when knitted up. I'm still getting used to the fingering weight yarn on 2mm double pointed needles, but so far, I think I like sock knitting... We'll see what I have to say when I need to turn the heel.