Color Chicken

The Exploding Socks have really been a journey for me. See, I LOVE color, but I really struggle with how exactly to use it. That leads to me knitting with tonals or solids, and without a lot of color variation unless specifically directed by someone else, simply because I'm a color chicken. I truly love the colors in these socks and have ever since the yarn first crossed my screen, but I was so nervous that it took awhile to actually buy the yarn, even though I loved it every single time I came back drooling. And then when I did buy it, it took me forever to actually cast on and then actually finish.


I was nervous the whole time, and I shouldn't have been.

I've said it before, but the Leyburn pattern is such a lovely pattern to knit. The stitch pattern is simple and easy to memorize, but looks really complex. It helped break up some of the potential pooling, but left some as well in a really cool "tiger stripe", as my boys call it. I did adjust the pattern somewhat- I really like the fabric I get for socks on a size 1 needle, so I did go with 64 stitches around as I usually do and I fiddled around with the numbers to get the pattern to go across the top of the sock exactly as I wanted it to.


I'm working hard this year on overcoming my mental color struggle. It's really strange, to be honest. I'm really drawn to brighter things and interesting color combinations (pretty much everything dyed by Nerd Girl Yarns and JulieSpins), but I freeze up when it comes to actually doing it myself. I need to be willing to experiment more and remember that it is JUST YARN. It can be ripped back and re-knit.