Of course, I cast on again immediately.

This is Brooklyn Handspun Instant Gratification yarn in the colorway "Deep Elemental." I swatched last night on Susan Bates US #3s and on Comfort Zone #4s, and the #4s won the gauge contest. I haven't tried CZs yet for a sock -- where I prefer hard and super-slick needles like Inox dpns -- but this yarn is sport-weight, so I thought it might work.

It does, though the very long and pointy tips of the CZ needles combined with the soft twist of the yarn has caused me to split a lot of stitches. But I'm fixing them.

The sock pattern I'm using is Nancy Bush's Little Arrowhead, free courtesy of The Wooly West. It looked like it would work with the Instant Gratification, and indeed it does so far. What you can't see in this picture is the frogging I'd done immediately before (when I suddenly woke up and realized that row 3 of the 4-row pattern is different from row 1) and the reknitting to actually develop the little arrowheads.

It can be hard to find a sock pattern that works with wildly variegated sock yarns. We all know ribs, lace and cables work nicely with solid light colors; solid darks are best with simple or lacy; self-striping takes to zig-zags, chevrons and waves. And a softly variegated yarn like one of Sundara's Somewhat Solids, or a short-color like some of Regia's, can be used with a textured pattern if carefully chosen. But what about the super-cheerfuls like this "Deep Elemental" ? Stockinette and ribs only, like this simple sock by the Brooklyn Handspun queen herself? It's pretty...

My thinking is that a simple lace, combined with stockinette, will work. We will all find out in the next few days! (One thing about Instant Gratification is that it's clearly not false advertising. This thing is FAST.)