Second Longest WIP*: DONE!

It's funny how a complete stranger pming you on Ravelry can actually have an effect on your knitting decisions. Earlier this month a random knitter sent me a message exhorting me to "...finish these socks! OMG the color is amazing!". I have to say that the message gave me a bit of a start and caused me to look over my shoulder, "Wha? You talkin' to me?" I felt like replying. But this Raveler was right! WTF? I only had about 70% of a sock to go before completion, so why not?

The Specs
Pattern: Ann Budd Basic Pattern for Socks
Yarn: Regia Uni Nation 4-fädig color #5399 , 2 skeins
Needles: 48 sts on size 2 HiyaHiya circ (Magic Loop)
I am somewhat torn about the yarn--I love the tripped out 70s color scheme but found it to be somewhat stiff and even brittle if that makes sense. But the recipient is happy and noted that "the fit is particularly good", which is a relief given the rather long hiatus taken between them (see below).

These socks are serving several purposes at once. As I have said before (you know, a YEAR AGO when I finished the first sock), I am fond of the color way as it invokes at once Doug Henning and Queer Pride, two things which on second thought might not be that unrelated. And the fun color scheme really helped me finish these, so they represent a return to sock knitting for me, because before these I hadn't finished a pair of socks since *gasp*JULY, so I was due. *Now if I could just finish that Irish Hiking Scarf from March 2006...

These socks also represent the last skein of what I am politely calling 'industrial yarn' in my stash. You know, the scratchy stuff. While I used to be attracted to the self-patterning action and the unique color combos of your Opals, your Trekkings, and your Regias, I feel like I've gotten burned on more than one occasion with bad dye jobs, knots and weird transitions in the yarn, so I am just not feeling them at the moment. From this point on I am totally industrial-free, and I am loving it. It's nothing but indie/hand painted/hand dyed from here on out for me!

These are also for the Darling Marxist Resident Curmudgeon, whose interpretive apparatus is going into OVERDRIVE with the bad economic news these days. Sometimes I wonder if he weren't wishing that we would be flung into a full blown 1930's style depression just so his darkest fantasies about our society could come true. "You know, there will come a point where we will look back and wonder how we ever afforded expensive marmalade...".

Well these are for him. And I owe him one. Because I am going to the South of France in less than a week for work (dirty job, etc. har har) to visit a study abroad program that our university sponsors, and he will be alone with the junior units and their musical instruments that they don't practice, their specialty sports beverages that he doesn't condone, and their Hannah Montana that makes him recite his rosary of Adorno until he's blue in the face. He's quite a guy!