Whittling away at the stash... now with more socks!

Last week was fall break, which was a welcome respite from early mornings, exams, cafeteria food, and Oberlin late fall/early winter. Well... everything except for the last one. I stayed on campus for the week, watched movies, did organic chemistry, and knitted. I've never knitted hats. I made one for my brother once, but that was more because he needed a purple and green hat with a ducky on it than because he needed a hat in general.

So, although hats are fast and cute, I've always had a hard time committing to them because I have this idea that I don't look good in hats. Which may be true. But after it started snowing here last year, my friend Graham mentioned that I had no hats, which in Ohio in the winter can be the difference between toasty and frostbitten ears. I had some peach-colored Classic Silk in my stash that I thought might look cute as a Porom. It's a cotton blend, so it's not the most useful for warmth... but cut me some slack, I'm just warming up (hahah) to the idea of wearing hats at all!

Something is on my head!

I've knit my works in progress from 14 last spring down to 1 last week, so I decided to cast on for a pair of plain stockinette socks in Panda Silk that my mom gave me for my birthday this last year. I apologize for the terrible dorm room messiness in the background. But I do think it's funny that my legwarmers are the same color as Porom... except I bought them somewhere in Osaka a couple of years ago (in the middle of summer, no less...), because for some reason I though that legwarmers were sooooo cuuuute! I still have a certain fondness for them, except now that fondness is mostly based on the fact that they keep my legs from freezing off.

Anyhow. I wasn't sure how to feel about this yarn. All of the reviews on ravelry said how soft it was, but I really didn't like the pooling that I saw every time I tried to cast on. So, since my magical US 1.5s worked so well for my alpaca socks, I tried them out with a basic 64-stitch pattern and short-row heel to minimize pooling around the instep. And hey... it totally worked! No kidding about the softness, either - sliding this baby on is like tromping on a blanket made of kitten fluff. If these socks hold up well, I'll definitely be using this yarn again.

Magically striped Paca Peds that made people stare at my socks-in-progress. 'Cause I guess I didn't blog about those, either. They are toasty and wonderful in many ways.