Chocolate pink cherry Monkey socks

After admiring photos of finished socks in various knitting blogs for months, I succumbed to the allure. I have to say the finished Monkey socks are divine:

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Yarn: about 2/3 skein Fearless Fibers 100% superwash merino sock wool, rainbow-dyed colorway Chocolate Pink Cherry
Needles: size 1
Size: women’s 9.5

They have a fabulous texture off the blockers, too:

Because I used size 1 needles instead of my usual size 2s these socks are a little tight in the cuff for me, but the Fearless Fibers yarn is a tiny bit thinner than the usual Trekking and Regia yarns I use and I liked the fabric better on smaller needles. If I make Monkeys again I will use slightly fatter yarn and size 2 needles. I absolutely had to make them in this yarn; just loved the colors.

This pattern was easy to memorize and to execute, perfect for starting out as travel knitting a few weeks ago and also perfect for completing on the bus. I made the cuff 8 repeats long rather than 6 and the foot ended up with 6 repeats. Starting the first sock I was on an airplane and unable to concentrate so the pattern seemed complicated, but once I sat somewhere quiet through one repeat I saw how logically it progressed through the 11 rounds and had it memorized right away. This was a fun project.

Unlike so many of you in blog-land, I have no holiday gift knitting projects but I mentioned seamless hiking socks to my mom this past weekend and she requested 3 pairs, so I am going to shoot for getting one sock nearly done in time for Christmas so we can have a fitting when I visit her. The purple summer sweater is also looking at me as I type this, asking me to finish tucking in the ends already.