Whitewash Cabled Socks

ravelry link
pattern | bff by cookie a
yarn | madelinetosh tosh merino light in whitewash
needles | us 1 double pointed needles
modifications | none
plant | monstera deliciosa

These socks and I have been through a lot together. I cast on during a flight to NYC with Jon back in February to see him play. I didn't get too much done because it was such a fun, whirlwind trip between his show and catching up with some of my super close friends from undergrad. That trip was hands down my best NYC trip in a long time even though we got slushed on and frozen to the bone and were completely exhausted and delirious by the end of it.

I continued knitting these socks in a hospital waiting room with my dad for while my mom was in surgery for 6 hours having two vertebrae fused. It was one of the most stressful points in my life; she was fine one week, and the next she couldn't move and was scheduled for surgery. If you look closely you can see the part I knit that day waiting. I couldn't keep track of where the cables were crossed due to stress so some are 5 rows long, some the normal 6, and some are 7. The surgery went perfectly and she's been recovering really well.

Sometime after that surgery the Blackhawks went through a bit of a slump, so one night while Jon and I were watching the game I decided to work on these socks rather than my usual hockey knitting project, my Stone Lake Sweater. The Blackhawks won that game and from then on out Jon decided that they were lucky and I needed to knit on them for every game. Once I finished the first sock it was decided that I needed to wear the finished sock during games, since it had already been deemed lucky and the second sock was untested. I obliged - hockey fans can be very superstitious and Jon's been one for a very long time (think kindergarden). You can see that the sock on top in the above photo is a little more stretched out than the other sock. I finished the second sock as the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, on my birthday, so really it was all meant to be (wink)!

So that's the story of knitting the socks, lets talk about the pattern now. It's the BFF by Cookie A and I found it to be a great pattern to work with. It's well written, easy to follow, and resulted in an awesome sock. Knitting cables on US 1 needles was a little painful on the hands at times, especially with all the stress knitting that went into these suckers, but it was well worth it. I would heartily recommend this pattern to anyone looking for a great sock that's a step up from basic but still showcases a great yarn colorway.

The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light, which I bought for the amazing colorway - White Wash. I couldn't fine this colorway in their sock yarn which is how I ended up using this for socks. The Tosh Merino Light isn't as well suited for socks as their sock yarn (imagine that, haha) but it wasn't anything I couldn't deal with. Occasionally I'd split a stitch when I was really busy yelling at the Blackhawks but other than that it knit up just fine. I can't say enough how beautiful this colorway is, it's even more beautiful in person. I wish I had a million skeins to knit a sweater with this! I though it was interesting that the first sock turned out so much lighter than the second sock, but I guess this is the nature of the dying beast. I don't mind it at all and actually find it really interesting and beautiful, but I'd thought I'd mention for those of you who are more into matching than I am. I think the subtle colorway was a perfect match for the small cables, I think it really highlights the beautiful simplicity of the pattern.

I also forgot to mention that this was my first time doing this type of heel, I usually pick patterns that have a short row heel, so I was a bit confused when I got to that point of the pattern. If you'e one of the people on Instagram that assured me to just follow the directions and things would work out, thank you!

These are definitely my favorite socks to date that I've made, and they're going to get a lot of use during the fall & winter. I really couldn't be happier with the outcome, both of all the things I knit them during and the outcome of the socks themselves! I'm now on the lookout for my next sock pattern...so many good ones. Any recommendations of ones you've knit recently?