So yummy it's...WICKABLE!

Though these socks were conceived in the crucible of air travel from the Southeastern US, I think they will bring me nothing but good memories to come!

It's nice to not have to worry about moths or lack of durability with this crazy-fiber yarn (soy and vaseline? not that's not it. bamboo and cool whip? nope...bungee cord and hemp? I can't remember.) The yarn was actually pretty nice to knit with, though I may have picked the wrong needle size (basically because that's the only size, other than a size 0, that I had with me on my travels), so knitting was a little 'stiff' for this loose knitter. The fabric, on the other hand, is fluid and of a good density for socks.

And look at those toes, heels, and cuffs! I had never made socks with contrasting extremeties, and now I find the effect particularily charming esepcially with the fresh, clean, fun colorway of this yarn!

Pattern: Beaded Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Wick in #429 Sea Gold and #676 Ocean; (soy and polypropolene)
Yarn enabler: Yarn Paradise in June, 2007
Knit on: One 36" Knitpicks Size 5, Magic Looped.
Time I spent knitting these while stranded in airports and sitting in AC: one week.

For a small city in a fairly warm climate, Asheville did not lack for places to buy yarn--good places. Yarn Paradise was a great store, outside of 'downtown,' but in the middle of the cute Biltmore Village which sits at the entrance to the Biltmore Mansion and has lots of great shops and places to eat. Yarn Paradise is a house filled with yarn--that's my favorite kind of yarn store! I could have spent hours in there, and I'm sure they would have let me, but I went there to find my very picky mother a pattern and a yarn that I could use to make a sweater for her for her birthday. I say that she's very picky in order to extol the virtues of this store--we must have looked at 15 possible yarns in every shade of red and in every combination of fibres, and every time she dinged a (perfectly lovely, IMO) yarn for being not the right kind of red or too scratchy, or too heavy, the proprietors were able to find another possibility for the Katherine Hepburn cardigan. Verdict? They had a lot of great yarn in a million colors. I was even offered some perfect sportweight cashmere at a reduced price, but my mom couldn't see letting me spend $200 for yarn to make a sweater, and I agreed, though I was tempted. The Wick yarn that I bought there was on sale for about $7 a skein. And I left behind tons of Colinette Jitterbug and Koigu in wonderful colors that tempted me to break my stash vow.

*Late added PS because otherwise Annie Knits and Harlem Purls will continue to think I'm some sort of stash weirdo: In addition to the Wick, I did end up buying a Katherine Hepburn Cardigan's worth of yarn. It's the "Merino Sei" that's over there to your right in the sidebar on my stash list. I bought yarn--but I had saved space for it in my stash list-the vow remains unbroken!