Coastal Stripe Socks for a Coastal Road Trip

 For years, I over packed knitting projects on trips. I was overly optimistic, and delusional at the same time. Then I smartened up, and started knitting dishcloths on trips. I'd buy one of those huge "Handicrafter" balls that reflected the mood/location of the trip, and knit corner to corner dishcloths, not even cutting between them until I had a few made. 

However, now I have dishcloths waiting to be used still. Last year, I made a bunch of hats for donation, and I still knit hats to donate, but the yarn requirements to fulfill almost two weeks of knitting was going to be too much to pack. I do have a simple red scarf on the needles that was perfect for this trip.

One day I was looking at the sock yarn in the Mary Maxim catalogue. I don't wear my wool socks much anymore, for a few reasons, but I looked at the names of the Kroy sock yarns, and one was "Northern Lights". Both of our summer road trips could result in seeing the Northern Lights (although sometimes we see them here!).   This would be perfect!  It was out of stock though. I went to two different Michaels, and neither had it. It was way too expensive on Amazon. I picked out Coastal Stripes instead, and also Woodsie (which I did need to order on Amazon). For our trip to northern Ontario, I used Coastal Stripes. 

I did toe up, but I cast on one at a time until I was past the toes, then put them on a spare needle and started the second one. I cast on (2.7mm)  8st (x2), increased every row until 16sts (x2), then every other row until 56 or 58? No, I think 56....this caused a lot of issues when I went to do the Fleegle heel. I was getting so mixed up in my numbers and what was half of that and then add two.... 

I then did a 2x2 rib, switching to a 3mm needle towards the top.  I tried to switch to a 3.25mm after a bit but couldn't find one handy.  Then casted off using the Russian Lace Cast Off. 

I was almost done when we got home from the trip, but the socks were mid-stripe pattern and I wanted to complete the pattern, so I kept knitting for another day. I love the fraternal twin look, though I talked about my disappointment with the heel colours on my YouTube video. 

These may not be Lake Superior rocks, but I think they still suit the theme! The big blue sky, the blue lakes, the grey gravel roads.

I can't wait to wear them (it did cool down here, but not enough for tall wool socks). I'm pretty sure I'll be able to wear them on our next trip, when I work on another pair of socks in the "Woodsie" colourway. We never did see the Northern Lights on our trip. I have a new star map to try out too. It stayed too light, too late for us LOL. And then, there was wildfire smoke and haze so we couldn't even see the sky on the way back!

Yarn In: 100gr + 3370gr = 3470gr

Yarn Out:   6397gr + 85gr = 6482gr

Balance:  3012gr more OUT than in

Costs: $229.79 + $13.99 = $243.78