and then there's the fact that sock yarn comes in a variety of insane colours and self-striping patterns that alaways result in the most unique pair of matching/mismatching socks. oh the yumminess of all the sock yarn in the world.
i could go on. but i won't. i promise.
so without further ado - behold, my wife's valentine socks. i made these quite a long while back. but i dropped a stitch on one of them and procrastinated the mending so she's been forbidden to wear them until now. (when i felt like finally fixing them last week.)
the yarn is crazy zauerball and i am smitten with this colourway. i've lost the ball band but every single colour on the socks are on the wife's favourite colour list, which is why i couldn't resist buying it and putting said yarn in her stocking 2 years ago. she started a sock but, being a newer knitter, was, at the time, a bit discouraged at how long it was all taking so she abandoned the project. i thought starting over and presenting these to her for valentine's day would be a good present (however late).
the yarn has a lighter hand than most of the sock yarn i am used to knitting with but oh my are these socks just delicious on the feet. (that's right. i tried them on. i always do. i also almost always make them so that they fit me - however different our shoe sizes are. but i wanted this pair to be all hers. so they are a bit snug on me.)
i used the only sock pattern i have committed to memory: susan b anderson's how i make my socks pattern - which is perfect for showing off the beauty of self-striping and self-patterning yarn, not to mention an excellent tutorial at that (i highly recommend it if you're a new sock knitter and wear a size 6-8 shoe).
and she loves them. success!
now when the wife declared she would like to try knitting socks again, she decided to knit the boy a pair of socks. i coached her through the process by basically following the sock pattern i always use, but i also consulted a few free kids sock patterns for guidance around how many stitches to cast on and when to start short rows for the heel. i gotta say, she did a pretty awesome job - especially because she improvised with using the magic loop method!
may i present the results?
when the wife finished the first sock, the boy said to her, "see mom, i told you, you can knit!" now that the wife has finished the second sock, the boy hugged them -actually hugged them upon presentation - and said he loved them!
she used knitpicks handpainted stroll sock yarn in the retro colourway. and he does absolutely love them. wouldn't take them off for a while. he even insisted on wearing them to school.
(i'm trying not to be bitter that i've had to wrestle him into pretty much every piece of knitting i've ever made for him.)
on my sock needles right now are a pair of socks for me - same pattern, different yarn. the yarn is the lovely knitpicks felici in its rainbow colourway.
i am ever enchanted at watching the colour change as i knit. the yarn comes in 50 gram balls - of which, i'm absolutely guessing that i had about 15 grams or so left - so i also finished a sock for the girl (using this pattern). it's so wee, it only took me a few hours in a couple of days to work.
not that i'm bragging.
socks are my travel project. they come with me on the bus, to the playground, in the car - because i can pick them up and put them down and pick them up again without a second thought. so i reckon it will take me another couple of weeks to finish. which i think is pretty reasonable when you think about the fact that i only head to the office on the bus once a week, playground knitting on any given day is a grand total of 5 minutes, and i'm in a car for about 20 minutes at a time once every 2 weeks.
and yet the boy think that the wife is a faster knitter than me because he has a pair of socks and the girl only has one.
(i'm really not bitter.)
(i'm really not that competitive.)
(i swear i'm not this petty.)
(apparently, just about the knitting.)
(can't blog. knitting socks now.)
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