Absinthe

I started knitting Absinthe way back in July of 2009, on a summer trip to Bali.  It was a great trip, and these socks should have been a nice, fast, appropriate vacation knit.  However, I have a fairly high instep. My heel flaps tend to be longer than most patterns call for (except Hedera) and short row heels do not work for me, so toe-up socks are typically not my cup of tea.  This pattern was just so gorgeous, and the yarn I had so perfect for it, that I had to knit it anyway!

After my first attempt, I ripped back, re-figured what should be where (check out Ravelry for knitting details), and then put them down when other projects were new! shiny! and needing the same needles.  After the Rhiannon annoyance and before ordering more yarn, I wanted a different traveling project for a few days so I could decide what to do.  Instead of starting a new project (always a draw) I chose to grab something from the WIP pile to plod towards the goal of using my yarn.

The first sock went pretty quickly, being halfway through the foot chart, and took a bit to figure out what to do with the cuff.  A cabled I-cord looked great, but even going up a full millimeter in needles didn't allow the sock to go over my instep, and larger needles would make it start to look ridiculous.  I suppose I could do some extra I-cord rows that don't knit with a leg stitch to increase the circumference, but I decided to stop playing with I-cord and did 1/2" of 2x2 ribbing as called for in the pattern.  The cabled edge looked great though:

One sock down, I went to check my stash to see how much I'd be using if I were to finish the pair this month.  300 yards, not bad.  300 yards, if I'd put that yarn into my stash instead of putting it into the project page only.  D'oh!  I realized I did the same thing with the other skein of Wild Fire Fibers Cyrus (for Blooming), put it directly into the project it was used for and never entered it when I was putting my stash into Ravelry as it was in the WIP basket, not on the shelves.  I've added it into my stash totals, bringing the total up another nearly half mile to just under 35.5 miles, and with the additional Cascade Heritage, the Rios I purchased along with it, and the Knit Picks Christmas order waiting for me in March, I think my goal may just be to get it below 30 miles before leaving Japan!