I really was beginning to think that I’d lost my sock mojo. Maybe each of us has only so many pairs of socks in us, and after that it’s on to sweaters or hats or something. Socktober was not a happy time for me. I ended up frogging out the first pair. And then the Jaywalkers, even though I really like the results, were just a hard, hard, hard slog all the way from toe to cuff. And the Downpour socks, while fun to knit along with the class and while I love the results, were also a bit of a never ending, interminable slog.

I didn’t use to slog through socks. Socks were my thing! Socks were nothing! I could knit them with my eyes closed, and I loved every one. Is the mojo gone?

Gentle reader, let me introduce you to the newest pair. I started these only a few days ago, and even though I have had not a lot of knitting time, they are just falling off my needles.

This pair is based on Sock Bug’s free River Rapids Socks pattern. Except, as is my wont, I changed it. I am knitting toe-up instead of cuff-down. And I decided I didn’t want them to be lacy, so I am using M1 increases instead of YO’s.

The stitch pattern reminds me of snakes. So at first I was thinking snakes on a sock, but that’s been done before.

But the color… The yarn is Koigu. The color — although this is a bad, early morning, no light in Portland winter picture — is fairly true on my monitor. It’s green with flecks of blue and red and orange and darker green. It reminds me a lot of Big Springs. There’s a large pond there, with water shaded by the trees and dappled green and brown. Take a look at the water in this picture and you’ll see what I mean. There’s a bridge that crosses the pond, and from the bridge you can see the fish in the water — rainbow and cutthroat trout, mostly, speckled and with orange and red sides flashing. Big Springs is the source of Henry’s Fork (the northern fork) of the Snake River.

This pair of socks is hereby dubbed Snake River Socks.

Interestingly enough, I’m have not hit the usual instep black hole where I knit a bazillion rounds for hours and hours, only to gain a whole 1/2″ of knitting. This time I knit a few rounds, and suddenly I have four inches. Maybe it’s because the stitch pattern is fun to knit and fun to see what it’s going to do next.

Ah…. the mojo is back…

Now I can knit a sweater.