Darling, Don't You Monkey With the Monkey

I started the second new project of 2008 today, the Hawk Sawks. The pattern is (obviously, to anyone who has ever read any knitting blog) Monkey by Cookie A. There are about 3,200 Monkey's on Ravelry, and almost 2,300 of those are finished. This is an extremely popular pattern, and I've been thinking about making a pair for a long time. I actually cast on a pair of Monkeys (with a picot edge, ala january one's version) last summer, but my gauge was all off and I didn't go back to them.

I bought this yarn a few months ago (it's Hazel Knits Artisan Sock, in the Hometeam Football colorway) intending to knit some Seahawks socks, but the other million projects I've been working on got in the way. I started them today because I wanted a game-appropriate project to work on during the Seahawks' first round playoff game against the Redskins. I was a little worried when the Seahawks lost their 13-0 lead that these were bad luck socks, and I'd have to rip them out (blog entry title: This Monkey's Gone to Heaven), but the Hawks came back and I kept knitting. At first, I wasn't convinced that I like the heavily patterned lace/cable stitches with the contrasty yarn, but I'm coming around to it. If these were not team-themed socks, I wouldn't combine this yarn and pattern, but it's o.k. for football socks to be a little loud. Go Hawks!

A bonus is that Cookie A. patterns are one of the January challenge themes for the Ravelry Sock Knitters Anonymous group. This is the first challenge I've joined, and both of the new projects I started this week qualify--the other project is the Mystery Sock. I'm about 30% through the first clue, and so far I like them. I'm not sure I'll finish Clue 1 before Clue 2 is released on Monday, but I'll post progress photos once I get a little further.