Hitting the sock wall?

Noro - I have a love-hate relationship with that brand of yarn. Love the way they do color; lots of other yarns try and even come close, but Noro's amazing colorways are still unequalled. Hate their tendency to leave a lot of vegetable matter in the yarn and how many skeins are chock full of knots, often resulting in abrupt color transitions. So I approached the skein of Silk Garden Sock with a mix of hope and trepidation, took it home anyway and split the skein.

Noro - fickle-hearted Noro! Everything started out so promisingly. As I split the skein in half, I didn't find a single knot in the entire skein! And hardly any VM either! Almost too good to be true - could this really be Noro? I cast on for waffle weave socks, having seen someone else's wonderful results with that yarn/pattern combination. In retrospect, she might have been using Kureyon Sock though. My attempt at them with Silk Garden Sock was a bust - wrong gauge when knit comfortably, nightmare to knit on needles small enough to make gauge. My second attempt was with a herringbone pattern, which was unsatisfying for a different reason - too much effort for no real visual impact. The plain cuff ribbing looked nicer that the herringbone zigzags.

Noro, oh, Noro, is that all you aspire to be - a plain pair of ribbed socks? Maybe you'll reconsider while you cool your heels in the sock yarn stash for now. I think I'll go work on something else right now.


[P.S. Kitty looks like she's here to stay. She's made herself quite at home, and we're calling her Muffin Top. She's a bit of a pudge.]