some neon yarn

Neon colors and neon yarns were a big thing about six months or a year ago. I admitted once I hoped the trend ended quickly. (Also, I was around for an earlier iteration of the "neon" trend - in the 1980s. And there's a dictum of fashion that says if you were around for the first big run of a trend, you probably shouldn't wear it in its second coming. See also: ponchos, the 1970s and the early 2000s.)

But for accessories, it's different. I did order some of the super-bright Knit Picks neon sock yarn. Partly because it was intriguing to me to try to find a pattern that would work but partly because we do sometimes get a long enough run of grey or even straight-up foggy days in the winter that something really bright is indicated to fight off the greyness.



I used a pattern from an older (maybe fall 2014?) issue of Simply Knitting, one of the UK based knitting magazines I buy. I had to alter the pattern slightly as it seemed like there was an error in the stitch pattern and it wouldn't come out symmetrically. But my slight rework worked and the socks are pretty much symmetrical. (Asymmetricality in a stitch pattern bothers me).

ETA: I also realize now that getting columns of lace (like you see here) to line up properly when you put socks on is a challenge akin to the women in days of old who wanted to keep their stocking-seams straight.

It's a simple and not-very-fancy lace pattern, mostly made with double yarnovers followed by a knit then purl (to preserve the large hole of the double yarnover) in the next row. It seems to me there are really two styles of lace: a very "feminine" sort of lace that is dainty and pretty and sometimes forms "pictures" like some of the floral laces, and then more "geometric" laces like these. Perhaps the fact that the balance of the knitting is a wide rib makes the socks look less delicate, I don't know.



I think of them slightly as my "Granny Smith socks" because of the green apple color, though the cartoon Granny Smith is a little bit of a lighter and less intensely saturated color than what these have.