I'm finding that knitting lace requires some faith. And lace socks, like concateknit and the nipper have noted, are not stress free. There should be a disclaimer on these things.
Here is my sock, beaten into submission and in a tinking phase.
I put it on my arm so you could see how the eyelets are working out. Faith I tell you, faith. These socks are going to need some blocking. I think I might have saved myself some agony by picking a merino yarn, just as the pattern called for. Louet's spin migt be a bit less tight than I'd prefer, but that's because I'm tinking so much.
And at least it isn't one ply like this Malabrigio is.
This is the lace pattern by Meg Swansen and can you believe the color of this yarn?! OOOOH. I did get the color card from Schoolhouse Press but found the Icelandic laceweight to be a bit harsher than I liked. So a quick pop-in to Full Thread Ahead- go ahead, read the big news and I had two gigantor skeins of laceweight Malabrigio. What's the other color? You'll just have to wait until I wind that one up.
What's that? You noticed it was wound? YES! Your best friends know you when they give you a ballwinder, even lugging it back from Oregon in a tiny carry-on (with partial fiscal sponsorship from a broke grad student in Montana) . The skein is gigantor. I mean, dude, people compare these to "pancakes" but this is more a cow pie. I thought my winder was going to burp it all off. Instead of using a non-existent swift, I just clamped the winder to my desk and held the skein below the edge of my desk by draping one end of the skein over my hand. This seemed to give the best tension all around for smooth winding. Occasionally I'd pull out the skein, still keeping it low, and lengthen the skein just letting the circle of yarn run around my hand. The trick is to keep the yarn winder going fast enough to keep the skein flowing around (similar to a spinning wheel's action) quickly.
Ok. Maybe I should vlog how I do this for next time. And yes, it was a lot of winding. I suddenly know why wendy has a machine ball winder.
And lastly, in an attempt to keep the wrinkles around my eyes from getting bigger (well not really, it was bad for my posture), there's a new addition to my desk.
A Dell 1905FP LCD. My office chair has gotten some more cushioning, too.