I believe my Jaywalkers may have gone last night where no Jaywalkers have gone before: to Carnegie Hall, for a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to benefit Doctors Without Borders. Our phenomenally talented friend Margo was assistant principal cellist, and she tore it up. The socks were deeply impressed. I’ve never heard the 9th performed live, and all I can say is it sure is worth it if you ever have the chance. (Actually, I could say a lot more, but this is a knitting blog and the socks didn’t do anything of note during the lovely bassoon countermelody at the beginning of the Ode to Joy that I loved so much.)

The Jaywalkers, they are done:

I realized that I am not, in fact, jaywalking here. The streets of New York City are just a little too filthy for that. So I did the next-most unadvisable foot-placement activity I could think of.

Mr. Garter really zeroed in on capturing stitch detail in this photo shoot. Notice the perfect clarity of that fang-like cast-on edge. Observe the legibility of that warning label on the ladder. How do we love thee, Olympus E500? (We’re still working on the blog-photography teamwork here. After my sweetie took a little heat for focusing on his dog and leaving the Butterfly socks as distant honey-colored blobs in the background, he was determined to do better. But apparently I failed to explain that you’d all want to see a picture of both socks together as proof that I really had knitted two of these puppies. Every great relationship requires work and clear communication. Baby steps, people. I’ll just have to keep knitting socks so we can improve in each photo session. First we’ll aim for capturing both feet, and perhaps one day you’ll even see the toes.)

So here they are at last: Topless Jaywalkers in Socks That Rock Azurite, one 325-yard skein, knit on size 0 Addi Turbos and decreased to 64 stitches for the feet to accommodate my 9-inch foot circumference. (Is this freakishly small? I can’t imagine it is, but 64 stitches sure is a heck of a lot less than 76, which seems to work for everyone else…) I don’t know why these socks gave me such a lot of trouble. I flew through the cuffs and heels, but then I had to rip the whole foot out and start again both times. Good thing the yarn is both fun to knit and very tolerant of frogging. I liked making the Jaywalkers, but they aren’t going to be my signature sock. The feather-and-fan socks I’ve made fit my feet more snugly and conceal the flashing tendancies of variegated yarn a little better. And besides, there are too many great sock patterns waiting for me to try them. I’ve already cast on for a Friday Harbor sock. A sock named for my home town? Now that’s a pattern after my own heart.

I’m making a new pair of socks. Yes, I’m on that bandwagon. But I have the 325-yard skein of Socks That Rock and size 9 feet, so I knew I’d run out if I didn’t watch my step. My solution? Ditch the ribbing. Topless Jaywalkers, baby! This exposes the edgier true nature of the chevron pattern and makes for a rather goth sock that I’m totally digging. And the Azurite colorway lends it a distinctly Transylvanian flavor:

Ice Bat can’t get enough. This sock makes him want to sing a little R Kelly: “You remind me of my teeeeth… Girl you look just like my faaangs…” Ice Bat is my Christmas present from my brother, and he is one cool character.

I almost finished this sock on Wednesday night after knitting with some of the Spiders:

Check out that absurd pooling on the foot. I wasn’t happy about it, but I was willing to live with it until I discovered this:

Yep, 76 stitches is way too many for the circumference of my somewhat narrow foot. I was just about to kitchener the toe when I discovered this. But out it came. I ripped back to the gusset and extended the decreases all the way down to 64 stitches, and I omitted one of the kfb’s in each outer panel so the patterning would stay mostly on the instep. It’s a set-back, but apart from the inevitable flashing at the end of the gusset, I’m getting nice stripes again. The Jaywalker isn’t going to become the only sock pattern I make (too many Nancy Bush and IK designs are calling my name), but I will say for it that it’s fast. I should have a finished pair to show off in another week or two.