Comments Rock!

Thank you THANK YOU thank you for your wonderful input! It is SO exciting to see the comments section fill up with encouraging and helpful words. Your comments are emailed to me in addition to showing up on the blog, but I cannot respond directly to all commenters via email. Bleh. I want to encourage more comments, and I think the advice was super helpful, so I will respond and summarize here. Perhaps other overly-apprehensive sock knitters can benefit from your comments.

Knitty Kat encouraged over-dyeing the sock since my sock pal, despite being a master sock knitter, may not have done this for herself. Great thought! I would love to give my sock pal something that is new and fun for her. (BTW, I have every other Monday off, but with "Heroes" ending its season last week I now have a void to fill on Monday nights. I may *sigh* have to devote that time to housecleaning but I'm sure I can insert some knitting time too!)

S B notes that dyeing yarn in the skein before it is knit up can produce better results than dyeing a finished knit; it hides the dyeing "imperfections". Great tip! She also really liked the Raspberry Chocolate...hard to argue with that.

Seanna Lea feels my "Heroes" lament and digs the Raspberry Chocolate, too. She asked about patterns -- I do have some in mind. I'm not big into knitting lace, but don't want to do plain stockinette. Something with a fun ribbed or cable pattern may be in order. I'll have to see what will work best with the yarn I choose. An upcoming post will be about my pattern options.

Muoriska says that she loves dyeing so much that she sometimes would rather dye than knit! Now that is a excellent red flag for me...the last thing I need is a new hobby! If dyeing is as addictive as knitting, I may be starting down a shadowy path of additional distraction and obsession. She likes the Raspberry Chocolate as well; good to know that even yarn-dyeing pros are into this colorway. Zen Yarn Garden certainly did a fine job.

Alison (the organizer of Sockapalooza 4!) sends words of wisdom regarding fears of knitting for a sock knitting superstar: "If she makes herself a lot of socks then she's a genuine sock-lover and will love whatever you make for her!" That makes me feel like a million bucks...thanks!

Carola offers some very practical advice -- you can't tell how the dyeing experiment works out until you're done. She also sends encouragement about knitting for a super sock-knitter: "...by participating in this exchange [she] signed up to the surprise. You will do fine!" So take heart, other newish sock knitters, the fun of these exchanges is in the surprise - not in the perfection - of the finished object. Very reassuring!

Jess Poskozim brings it home: "...if your petting and sighing is any indication, it will be fun to knit with something that soft". So true, so true. Using the same yarn (in a different colorway) to knit socks for Mr. Hipp was pure joy. The yarn is like butta, and it's DK weight so it knits up a lot faster than the fingering weight Socka Colori.

Some great food for thought. Thank again for your great comments!