Working without a net

Yes, that's right - I'm following a pattern that pretty much tells me to "do this until it looks right." Then "do that, but I'm not going to tell you how to do that, you'll have to look it up on your own if you don't already know how."

The result? After four hours (maybe five - one stint was during Pirates of the Caribbean III, which was what, like four days long?) of knitting, I have this much of a pair of toe-up socks:

I managed to do the entire toe up through where you start to turn the heel, all during the pirate movie. The rest was done during two episodes of Battlestar Galactica, if I remember correctly. One and a half episodes of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe later, I've got another half of a foot started.

I'm loving this method - you get to do the exciting stuff right away! And when you get to the boring part, you can put it on a spare set of needles, start the other exciting stuff, and work until you get to the boring stuff again, all in the name of "making the cuffs as long as I can with the yarn I have left." And if the boring stuff gets too boring, I can say "well, I needed some anklets, anyway" and stop knitting! And I don't have to haul a pattern around with me, at least once I get the hang of short-rowing the heels.

The only thing I'm not loving right now is the striped pattern I'm doing, which was necessitated by a "they only have enough yarn to make one sock of each color" purchase back in September. Knitting the stripes is fine, but there's not enough contrast between the purple and the variegated yarn so that they actually show up. Oh, well - I know they're there. Plus, still warm, even if not super stripey.

Need more sock yarn. NEED MORE SOCK YARN! Oh, etsyians.......