Little Chevron Rib

And so I start another pair of two-at-a-time socks.

These ones are for M, who chose the 10-stitch, 4-row Little Chevron Rib pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks (love that book almost as much as the original!).

At first I really didn't like the way the knit/purl pattern interacted with the dark parts of the self-striping yarn (Trekking XXL color ). Now that I'm a few inches in, though, I like the way the purl bumps pull up lighter and darker colors into the stripes, and the texture is fantastic. I'm using size 1s (gulp!) and my gauge is 8.5 stitches per inch, so the fabric is really taut and interesting. I'd love to see what this stitch pattern looks like with heftier yarn.

Speaking of size 1s, this is also a showdown of the needles: I'm trying to decide whether to take back the Addi Turbos I bought a couple of weeks ago...impulse purchase when my KnitPicks circulars hadn't arrived yet, and $25 can buy more yarn. So I'm using one KP and one AT circular to see if I can discern any difference or preference. So far I've definitely noticed the weight differential--the Addis are much lighter, as Grumperina posted about a while ago--and I have to have a tip transition whenever I switch, but I don't know if I feel strongly about one over the other, nor do I think I'm appreciably faster with one over the other. I do feel strongly that $5 is more reasonable for a needle than $12.50; on the other hand, I love all my larger Addis and DO notice a speed difference with them. Anyhoo--

Back to the socks: I was able to read much of Helen of Troy by Margaret George while knitting on these this week. I'm not a huge historical fiction buff, but this one was good.