Finished Object: Spiral Boot Legwarmers

Yay, first pair of the year is done! Yes, they aren’t technically socks, but it’s my game—and I’d also told my friend Maria that legwarmers would totally count for her if she wanted to play along, so this is established precedent—so they totally count.

In case you’re just now following along with the saga of the January Socks, the random number generator originally picked a different pair of socks for this month. However, the yarn that I wanted to use for them was a re-skeined in a complicated way, so I couldn’t wind them. I turned the yarn over to my friend Sarah, who is a master detangler, and brought back the nicely wound ball within a couple of days (I thought it’d take her a while to master the yarn; I underestimated her and overestimated the tangles). In the meantime, I’d run the RNG again and came up with the Spiral Boot Socks by Véronik Avery, and cast on with my Berroco Comfort DK.

…without bothering to check my yardage. So there I merrily go, knitting away, and half way through the first “sock,” I thought hm, I wonder if I have enough yarn. I didn’t. Not even close. Given the yarn diet and the fact that it would have cost twice as much as the yarn itself to ship a skein of this yarn in the same color, I opted to step off the beaten path a few meters early and ended up with Spiral Boot Legwarmers.

Aside from improvising because I’m an idiot, I made a few other modifications to this pattern. I cast on 88 stitches instead of 80, because I thought 80 stitches might be just a smidgen too small for my calves. Good call there. I worked the rest of the pattern as intended, and when I got to a good stopping length, I worked a 3×3 rib at the end.

I wore them out today, over brown tights and under grey boots. Yesterday I worn a brown and white striped tee, a pink cardigan, and grey flats. Apparently I’m feeling very Neapolitan lately.

Side note: These boots are very loud, in an authoritative way, but really comfy, and I wear them a lot. Today as I was walking around town, I passed a few guys and one of them said “Nice boots” as I walked by. Yes, yes they are.

So these are my first finished object for the year! On the other hand, I’ve read 10 books. TEN. I think we might know where my priorities are at the moment.

What are you up to this fine weekend?