Man Socks

I really enjoy knitting socks, especially for people I know appreciate the time and effort that went into creating them. No person more than Steven enjoys being the recipient of my handmade socks.

I started these socks at the beginning of December with the hopes of getting them done in time for Christmas. I got distracted making my friend mittens for Christmas (which I never did get a picture of). On Christmas Eve morning, I wrapped up the one sock I had completed, and the partially, really-barely-even-started, second sock. I gave it to Steven and told him to open right then and there. I told him I was making him the socks and he would get the second one down a lot faster if he knew he was getting it and I could knit in the open instead of trying to knit in secret. I was able to finish the second sock up this morning and I think they turned out quite wonderfully.

The sock yarn is Smooshy by Dream in Color. The colorway is called November Muse. I really liked the colorway; mainly brown with various shades of blues and greens mixed in. It struck me as a very manly and appropriate colorway for what I hoped to be manly socks.

I used size two needles, and the basic 4 needle top-down pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, casting on 64 stitches. I didn't use a stitch pattern found within that book. I picked out a really awesome 4 stitch pattern from my stitch dictionary called Crossed Braid. It is a two round pattern:

Round 1: Slip first stitch, knit next stitch, yarn-over, pass slipped stitch over knit stitch and yarn-over, Purl 2
Round 2: Purl

Somebody is happily wearing their socks this morning.

I thought these would be the awesomest socks in the universe

[And then the mustard ended up right next to the bright green, and it ended up looking kind of, I don't know, "pukey." I mean, overall I still really like the socks and think that they are pretty neat, but they could have been a whole heck of a lot better if I had had the foresight to think about how the colors were going to line up. Such is life.]

May I present to you, the Socks of Kidness. They are a birthday present for my dear friend who unfortunately has a birthday four days before Christmas. I always like to make sure I give her separate birthday and Christmas presents, and she specifically requested a pair of my hand knit socks for her birthday this year.

When I saw the skein of Noro Kureyon sock yarn (colorway 164) I figured it could easily be made into the best pair of socks ever. The colors were perfect for my earthy, fun-loving pal. I had read up about the nifty striping effects you can create with Noro. I carefully wound the big skein into two separate balls, and then cast on for the pattern on my teensy, tiny size one needles. I alternated four rows of the pattern from each ball. I loved the zig-zag effect immediately, although I gotta tell you, I'm not much of a fan of lace (counting is hard!) either. The socks did go surprisingly well, although I'm not going to lie and say I didn't have to rip it out once (or maybe like five times, whatever).

The colors were looking pretty good at first. Manly, almost (the one that starts with the gray and mustard is the first sock). The boyfriend thought they were really neat and wanted a pair for himself. That is of course, until they went into the bright green. Then the bright green melded with the mustard, and the socks started to look kind of, um, unfortunate. The second sock doesn't even look like it came from the same bunch of yarn because it's mostly teal and green. I really like the teal and green combo but it is the complete opposite of the first sock. The second sock also unfortunately had the pleasure of the green/mustard combo too.

Oh well, I love them just the same. They are quirky and unique. I hope my friend will see them that way too.