Chango

Every time I worked on these Monkey Socks for the swap, Ozomatli's Chango ran through my head.

El otro dia, yo vi a un hombre, un hombre feo, parece chango, chango peludo, hasta la barriga, y su espalda, parece bosque.

The other day, I saw a man, an ugly man, he looked like a monkey, a hairy monkey, down to his belly, and his back looked like a forest.

The song is about 4.5 minutes long. I estimate that it took 25 hours to knit these socks (yes, I am a very slow knitter). That's about 333 hairy monkeys on the brain.

Specs:
Pattern: The ubiquitous Monkey by Cookie A
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, Colorway P485 (light and dark blue, pink, lavender)
Needles: US 2 KnitPicks Harmony DPNs
Modifications: Cuff is regular 1x1 rib instead of twisted rib, for extra stretchiness a la Octopus Knits, altered left-slanting decrease (see below)

My pal's feet are 9.5 inches around and 9.5 inches long. I ended up doing five pattern repeats on the foot to make it work. It may seem a bit short, but these socks stretch like a mofo. My feet are 10 inches long and 9 inches around and they fit me just fine.

About those left-slanting decreases: SSK was not doing it for me; when followed by a purl stitch, as in the pattern repeat, it came out saggy baggy bleh. I still used SSK when followed by a knit stitch, as in the gusset decreases...then it was perky pretty nice.

I experimented with various types left-slanting decreases with the help of this extremely helpful post on nonaKnits and settled upon the sl 1 k1 psso. Way better results and still really simple to do.

These were my first ever cuff-down socks! I am enormously proud of, and surprised with, how they turned out. The whole toe-up concept just seemed to make much more sense to me when I first started making socks...that's how you put a sock on, so wouldn't it make sense to knit it that way too? That, and I was irrationally frightened of having to graft a toe; so irrational, in fact, that learning a figure-8 cast on seemed way less daunting.

If you have the same phobias, make the plunge and try a cuff-down sock. It's really not that bad! These socks helped me break out of my knitting box and I feel like a better knitter as a result.

All the teeny stitches on socks has left me craving some fat needles and easy gratification...but more on that later. Mom's Guilt Socks have been neglected for too long.