i use two hands, biznatches

it has begun. we've gotten to the root of my sock love-hate relationship.

you sees, i fell in love with some stockings. norwegian stockings from nancy bush's folk socks. i saw them on jess' blog, i saw them on eunny's blog, i done seen them on flickr. and i was secretly a little mad at jess for making them in the precise color scheme that i would have chosen if i had to pick from scratch. but whatever, i'm over it.

so, to get ready for my first REAL stranded knitting experience (although, i did a one-handed stranded - rhymes! - hat that wound up too small for adult heads) , i've been practicing my english knitting skillz. i can do it backwards, but i even screwed up a cable on the gull-stitch cardie trying to learn english. and i've got knitting down basically with that - it's the purling that's trickier. luckily, english purling doesn't occur much with fair isle.

the thing that will be tricky with these socks is tension, and winding up with floats that are of a good tension but that are loose enough to fit over my giant calves.

so yesterday, in a fit of frustration with the gull stitch cardie (with a sleeve and the tiny right front to go!), i set it aside, and started the norwegian stockings.

hey! accurate color?! what's up with that?

the tension's a little wonky, it doesn't fit over my calves. well, it does, but the first motif gets eaten by the grey yarn because of the undue tension on the floats. here's a closer shot of the first motif:

this is what i think - i need to loosen my floats more. i need to get rid of the purple, and sub white or pale, pale baby blue. either that, or change the background color from dark grey to white, keep the purple snowflake motif, and keep the green for the primary leg motif color.

thoughts?