My Dragons
Sock Memories
Having just finished my second pair of socks in KnitPicks's Sock Memories, I have a few things to say about it.
One, the color I used for this second pair has been discontinued, and frankly I can see why. It was called "Daffodil", but as I mentioned to a number of people, a better name would have been "Succotash". It has the precise yellow of corn (maize, for my non-US readers if any), the exact orange of carrots, and two different shades of green that are quite lima-beany and string-beany.
Two, the color spacing. I realize that tension is an individual matter, but having done a pair each at 60 and 64 stitches I saw no noticable difference in the very odd striping Sock Memories produces. Both pairs have a sort of barber-pole effect with two colors in one stripe and two in the other; the only difference was the sets of colors (in Pansy, it was two shades of purple vs yellow and black; in Daffodil it was yellow and orange vs the greens). This is not a terribly attractive effect, in my opinion, and they'd have done better to make their color spacing much shorter--to produce a blurred, mottled effect--or much longer--so one could get most or all of a round out of one color. I am tempted to try knitting from both skeins next time.
Three: the texture is absolutely divine, but that's only what I would've expected from 100% merino. Nor is this one of those yarns that feels nice in the skein but has an unpleasant hand when knitted; it produces a beautifully soft, slightly haloed fabric. I'd like to try it on slightly larger needles to make a garment at some point (and since KnitPicks sells large skeins of the stuff in natural white, I could even dye it myself). I think it would drape very well.
Four, it's hand-wash only, though we have discovered that cold wash/line dry doesn't cause felting. This is just what you get when dealing with 100% wool, so I'm not going to complain about it
Fifth and last, I love it that there's just enough to do a pair of baby booties afterwards. Not that I know a lot of people who are having babies, but it never hurts to be prepared.