crayola colors, two WIPs, and two FOs

I've been knitting some crazy colors lately. These are the colors that were completely worn down in my crayon box when I was a kid: the deeply saturated colors, the colors that were between the primaries. I loved the red orange, the yellow orange, the blue green, and so on. I still do. If I were braver, I would have a crayola house. As it is, just the bathroom is as crazy as I want it to be.

But I digress. Check out these socks:

Those are Loksins! in Claudia Hand Painted Merino. The color is Grape Jelly, and these are wild. They almost glow when I wear them around outside. The color is deep and tropical, and not like anything ever seen around here. I love them.

The Uptown Boot Socks from yesterday's post are still going strong, and the color is just as strong. They are ready for me to start the heel, but it's a weird heel: I start with half the stitches (32) as usual, but then before I start the heel stitch, I decrease four stitches evenly over the width of the heel flap. What gives? I've also noticed that the instep stitches are going to stay at 32, but the sole stitches are going to be fewer... is there something about this stitch pattern I don't understand? Do I knit the pattern as written, or decide that I know better and proceed as usual?

And then there are the socks I started knitting on the train, but finally decided to rip out after I'd made it well past the heel. They were too small, and I just wasn't ready to admit it until I got almost all the way home. Those are the ones to the right of the yellow orange Uptown boot socks, in seemingly unrepeating stripes of seaweed, ocean, and mermaid. Remember Sea Green from the Crayola box? These are going to be Cat Bordhi socks, from the New Pathways book. I'm using the Sky architecture, which means I don't have to do anything differently until I get to the top of my ankle bone. I'm knitting them both at the same time because the construction is unfamiliar, and I want to make sure I make the two socks as similar as possible.

Finally, here are the socks I finished just before we left for LA. They are basic socks, K3 P1 rib, 72 stitches around on 0s. The yarn is OnLine Supersocke Beach, and I don't remember which colorway. These are quickly becoming my favorite socks. I even took the time to match the stripes, a silly trick I've never even attempted before. It was satisfying for this particular pair, but I don't know that I need to repeat the feat.