Happy socks

I have been out of the United States once...well, except for a week or so in Hawaii, I've been off of the continent once...last year....when I spent a week with my friend and her family in England. This year, before my friend moves back here, I get to go and visit her again.

While visiting my friend I bought two skeins of Noro sock yarn (I know, I know....I, an American, bought Japanese yarn, in England....but I also bought yarn that was manufactured in the UK as well). I'd never knit with Noro before and, truthfully, I find the skeins to be rather itchy and scratchy and wasn't so sure that I'd want to make socks from them for fear that the socks would be...well....itchy and scratchy. My girlfriend assured me that Noro makes lovely socks and I've read many a review that says the same thing. So I cast on. At first I thought "hmmm, I'm not sure that this is quite my cup of tea. Oh well, I only have two skeins". But as I knit on and (I'm not a stripe kinda girl) the stripes are forming, I'm finding this to be a "happy sock". There is just something I find happy about both the colors and the yarn....like I'm harking back to my hippie (such that they are) roots. I am looking forward to a long happy relationship with Noro. (and I may even buy some when I go back to the UK)