Sam was right.

I haven't made great Sock Club progress this year. I've barely started the January/February socks, and didn't go to either the March or April meetings. So after Wednesday's Charity Knitting I resolved to pick up the May/June pattern, and get back on the Sock Club track.

This month's pattern is Fiber Trends' Chain of Hearts, a simple looking pattern written for three weights. While it was tempting to use worsted, River Knits was encouraging Panda Silk for the pattern, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I thought about pink, but I'm not really into the fluffy pink hearts thing. I don't think the pattern really looks much like hearts, anyway. But Elizabeth had a couple balls of black yarn in the basket, and I've been thinking about making black socks (sometimes you need something a bit dressy, right?), so I thought I had a perfect match.

Sam, however, took the black yarn out of my hands and recommended I choose the pink. That's right - Sam was pushing the pink yarn (click here to see why this is odd). She said black yarn is a huge pain to knit. She said you need really good lighting. She said I'd probably ruin my eyesight. But I didn't give in.

She was right.

I've just started, and this pattern is not black-friendly. Black yarn is a huge pain to knit. I need really good lighting. I'll probably ruin my eyesight.

There's a funky "left cross" stitch where you have to bring the needle from the back to twist around and knit through the front, and it's not what the yarn wants to do. So not being able to see which bit of yarn is which is a serious handicap. I'm a bit worried that the Panda Yarns tendency to split may be a problem, too.

So do I continue knitting with this pain in the neck yarn, or do I give in and buy something new? I don't like the pattern well enough to use stash yarn for it. But I'm concerned that buying even more yarn may be going a bit too far in the yarn-collecting business.

If I do buy new yarn, I think it's gonna be worsted!