Toes Up!

I told you I did a lot of knitting over that past few weeks and I wasn't kidding! Lately, I've been obsessed with socks. Maybe it due to the unforgiving cold Chicago has been eduring lately. Although, none of the socks I made were for me. The two above were knitted on size 0 needles. Do me a favor and remind me to never ever do that again. I swear I cramped-up my fingers and nearly went blind speeding through those two socks to have them ready by Xmas!

I am in love with both of the main yarns I used for these socks. The sparkly purple pair is The Wool Dispensary's Useful Irradiant that I made for my grandmother (Ravelry link) and the mottled blue ones were made for my husband in "Loch Ness" from Knit Picks' Imagination Hand Painted Sock Yarn (Ravelry link). I loved the feel of the Imagination yarn so much I wanted to steal these socks for myself. Unfortunately, this line is now discontinued, which I wish I knew about while I was buying the yarn. I would have grabbed an armful.

For the third pair I knitted-up I decided to use needles I could really get a grip on, so I made-up a pattern for worsted wool boot socks (Ravelry link). The yarn may look familiar and that is because I used the leftover from Carolee's triangle cowl. And guess who it went to? Carolee. I wanted to make something really weird that would put a smile on her face when she wore them. Her crazy bit of the outfit that was a secret from everyone else. Sorry for the poor photos on these socks, but the sun was not cooperating on the day I tried to document them before mailing it off to her.

All of these socks use the same three methods for their structure. For all you knitters, here are the details:
- I used "The Humble Sock goes Toe Up" pattern by Nikki Burns
- Cast on with Judy's Magic Cast-on (

I haven't decided yet if I prefer an afterthought heel over a regular heel, but for these projects it was exactly what I needed. I knitted them mainly in planes and just didn't want to fiddle with stopping half-way to knit across and fiddle with reattaching needles and such and generally annoying whoever was sitting next to me in the confined space of a wee jet.

It is amazing to me just how many different ways there are to construct and knit socks. There are plenty of other alternatives out there; any technique you prefer for socks?