These socks are just too cute to be mere "socks", they are affectionately known as "sockees" around here. (OK, technically just "sockee" but you get the idea.)
For your viewing pleasure:
They don't make a great visual impact, at least not with my lack of photographic skills, but trust me, these are a pleasure to knit. First, the Felici yarn is soft and a dream to knit. I haven't done much ripping (yet--let's keep in mind that the heel is still in my future) so I can't attest to how well it holds up to that torture. The pattern is "Gentleman's Shooting Stocking" from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.
After I finished the Sockapalooza socks, DH decided to be more vocal about his own desire for handknit socks. He picked out the pattern from the book and I thought for sure that I would hate it since the purl/knit comb changes every row. I thought I would be annoyed and wouldn't be able to find a rhythm. How wrong was I? I am loving the pattern--so easy I have memorized it and its also easy to read the knitting so I always know exactly what my next stitch should be. The colors of the yarn are lovely. They are manly but not totally muted (that red is nice and bright) with color changes just often enough to keep me interested.
Can you tell that I'm loving this knit? My MIL has hinted that my FIL would absolutely love a pair of handknit socks. Since these are practically flying off the needles, I may actually try to make him some in the near future. (He's consulting in Canada for a few months and needs all the warmth he can get.)
The only other project that has seen any action these last few weeks is currently nonexistent. You see, I'm a knitter, a knitter who suffers the bitter cold of obnoxious AC in my office. I feel like I should be able to knit something to keep the chill off rather than resorting to something so pedestrian as buying a sweater. I pulled out the lovely alpaca I purchased at Stitches East last year, wound it into cakes and looked for a center panel pattern in Victorian Lace Today that called to me. First, the number of stitches were too few, then too many for a comfortable width. I finally got the number of stitches right and worked the 12-row pattern. Well, it looked OK but the real problem was all the shedding. Shedding is not ideal for a shawl that is going to be used almost daily with business clothes. Sheesh, its bad enough I probably have dog hair all over my pants on a regular basis. Sadly, the alpaca has gone into storage, awaiting its ideal project.
Next, I moved on to some cashmere (from Colourmart), that I had in my stash. Warm, check, not too heavy, check, does not shed, check check. Despite having a swatch (from some previous experimenting), I could not get the width right. After a couple of tries, I pulled the yarn off the needles and called it a day. I broke down and bought an "office sweater" yesterday. (hanging head in shame)
