Somewhere Down the Lazy River -- Socks

You can only comb so much fleece in a day.  After a while your arm gets tired, and the pile of fleece isn't diminishing as quickly as you'd like it too.  So to keep myself inspired, I started a pair of socks.  I bought the yarn at my LYS a while ago, can't find the label right now, but it was a varigated yarn by Cascade.  Then I searched for the right pattern -- and found it on Ravelry.  It's called Somewhere Down the Lazy River, by Lorraine Umbers. Perfect companion to the blues, greys and purples in my yarn.

The pattern uses carefully (yet easily) constructed drop stitches.  The piece is a 2 X 2 rib stitch.  On alternating knit stitches, you set up the drop stitch by doing a yarn over.  This creates a third stitch in the rib pattern.  On the 7th round, you drop that stitch and it ladders down, created a widening, that I think looks the like waves and currents on a lazy river. Here's the photo essay.

These are the channels of dropped stitches.

This middle stitch is the one that is going to be dropped.

The only time you love to watch a dropped stitch travel down the ladders.

On the next round you close it up by continuing in the 2 X 2 rib. 

It is indeed a thing of beauty.