So, I've been wanting to learn to make socks for a while now (and have collected a bunch of patterns...) - they're easy to foist onto other people and take way less yarn than shawls, which are fun and last a while as a project, but expensive. I saw the photo samples of this yarn as a sock WIP and loved the contrasting stripes a lot. And also the rainbows of course. I figured it'd be a good yarn to make some basic socks out of for the learning part, so I waited...and waited...until it finally came back in stock after I don't know, months? (And then it sold out before I could get it, and was devastated, but then it came back in stock the next week. What a rollercoaster) It still took a while before I actually started on it, because I knew I needed to swatch it and I was lazy as heck...and turned off also by the idea of having to lose some yarn to a swatch...until I discovered that the ball actually weighed a whole 10 grams more than promised so I didn't have to worry about the swatch eating too much yarn LOL. 

Anyway, story time: I brought it out to work on while on vacation and swatched it at 18 x 25 stitches in stockinette per 5cm x 5cm (washed and blocked). Based on my foot measurements and the calculations in the recipe, I was supposed to cast on 96 stitches, which was...a little worrying! The writer cast on 68 stitches for men's size 8.5. My shoe size is larger, but not THAT much larger...I attributed this to maaaaaaaybe I just knit very tight? and went ahead with it. Main modification here was to do a ktbl/p1 ribbing rather than the suggested k2p2 because I liked how it looked, but it shouldn't really have affected the wearability of the sock...I think. I got as far as finishing the cuff and a little bit of the leg on vacation, then came back home and re-blocked the swatch because I was suspicious, and the stitch count didn't change in any way that would've affected my cast-on stitches. But the looseness was bothering me a lot, so I ended up pinning it tighter to figure out a better stitch count, then frogged it entirely to redo. I don't know why my calcs were so off the mark - I imagine it's probably because of stretch, but I already accounted for negative ease, so it's a mystery...it's a bit worrying for future socks.

tl;dr sock calcs gave stitch count that was very loose, unravelled hours of knitting to start over.

Anyway, now it fits perfectly - not too loose, not too tight (although the cast-on edge isn't very stretchy, so I have to be a little careful when pulling it on to test). Current stats:

• Cast on: 76 stitches
• Cuff: 24 rows
• Leg: 50 rows
• Heel flap: 48 rows in eye of partridge

Some things I have been thinking so far:

• Went with the k2p2 rib this time. I think the look grew on me and also: it's less of a pain than the ktbls.
• The rainbow stripes go out of alignment when my tension changes, so it hiccups a little where I went a little loose and went back into formation when I tightened up again. Not very noticeable though.
• I'll have to pick up stitches on the side of the heel flap later, so it bothers me that my edges aren't neat - I can't quite see where and how many stitches to pick up. Even though my tension is even across the row, when I purl it ends up pulling the knits between the slipped stitches out of shape, especially at the end of the row. This is something I'll have to work on most probably...
• The neat edges also is a problem at the end of a round for the leg - weirdly enough I don't have issues with ladders between rounds, but I do have issues with a column of uneven stitches where the last stitch is because of the tugging. It seems to neaten up by itself after more rows so hopefully not a permanent issue.
• First time doing short rows for the heel turn - these were fairly straightforward I think. 
• The rainbow yarn is a joy to work with - hitting a rainbow section is always exciting. 10/10 would buy this yarn again.

Next up is picking up the stitches...after which it should be fairly straightforward until it hits the toes (I don't want them too pointy so I'll have to figure something out here). Obsessed, honestly - I think I like doing socks? Maybe the 50 rows of stockinette isn't that fun but it knits up fast...