good-natured ribbing

It was warm and sunny enough to take my socks outside yesterday for a picture. Here’s a progress report:

Pink Socks

I’m using Lorna’s Laces Yarn in Flamingo. The cuff is simply k1, p1 all the way down. I have 2 skeins in my stash, so I can afford to make the cuffs a little longer than usual.

I decided to use a heel flap on this one instead of my usual short row heel just to experiment with what it does to the stripes. There’s a little bit of a garter stitch border there, too. Maybe I’ll make the second one with a short row heel just to see how the color behaves differently. For myself, I find that short row heels fit better.

Blue Socks

Since it was so nice, I took Nigel’s new socks out, too. Almost done! These are basic socks from Vogue Knitting Socks Two, except with a short row heel.

The heel on the right sock looks a little messy, doesn’t it? It’s my curiously recurring attempt to figure out the Jojo-Heel. I have tried knitting this heel seven times, but have failed miserably every single time. I always think I have it until I reach this line:

“After these 2 rounds work again short rows with double stitches, however this time from inside to outside.”

I have no idea what that means, so when I reached this step I just continued as if I were doing my regular short row routine, but with some sloppily wrapped stitches instead. I figure after a wash or two it will all even out…

I secretively delivered the socks of kindness to their recipient today (thus the bwa-ha-ha). This pattern is by Chawne (and here), but I can’t find a story. Why are they called socks of kindness?

Not that perfection has ever been a problem with me, but luckily all my socks end up with enough quirks to prevent hubris. In this case, I somehow lost my mind and knit the first sock cuff with a k2p2 ribbing and the second with a k1p1 ribbing. Way to be wild. But will the recipient notice?

As I said, this was a great pattern and it seems to have rekindled my interest in knitting socks. I already have 2 more pairs going. In addition to a plain pair of blue (see previous post) I’ve started a pair of pink ones with yarn purchased long ago. Beth knit a pair of socks for Ava with this same yarn, and it’s interesting to see how the stripes are coming out slightly different.