new socks

I finished a pair of socks! Just in time for today's 82 degree weather! I think I finished them on Wednesday night. That might make these the quickest socks I've ever knit -- 2 weeks, 1 day.

Some toes ...

Some more toes ...
(For some reason, this shot of my toes reminds me of The Dog line of products...)
And the flat-out shot...
Why yes, my stripes do match, thankyouverymuch. (Ahem. Until I got to kitchener close one of the toes, and had to dip into the white/grey stripe to finish the grafting. Which really really bothered me. Luckily I had a sharpie marker in a dark pinkish color, and I colored in that stripe. Yes, I really did that. Check the first picture of toes above. See that lighter pink dot on the right hand sock? That's where I colored in some white yarn...)

Project specs

Yarn: Jawoll Jacquard, color 82158

Needle: addi Turbo, Size 1, 40", magic loop

Gauge: 8.5 spi

Pattern: NONE!!! Not even some notes. I made these entirely pattern-free, which was one of the reasons I started them (that, and to have something simple to knit while at a Harlot reading...). I wanted to know that I could just grab some sock yarn and needles and make a sock that would fit me. It must have been fate, because a couple of days after starting these, I read the chapter of the Harlot's new book about socks, in which she describes the rules of thumb for knitting socks without patterns.

Granted, I've made enough socks that this is not a huge accomplishment. However, it does make me feel like a "real" knitter. It also helped me to break loose from the idea that I have to either slavishly follow a pattern, slavishly modify a pattern, or slavishly design my own pattern. As you might have guessed, I'm not really a "go with the flow" personality, knitting or otherwise, and it's good to know that I can sometimes just knit on the fly.

Of course, there are still lots of sock patterns that intrigue me, and sock techniques I've not yet tried, so you'll still be seeing plenty of interesting socks here, as soothing as stockinette socks can be.

In other sock-y news, my Sockapaloooza sock pal's socks are on the way to her, having cleared customs (according to the online tracking). I don't have mine yet, but the Mafia got hers this week ... go check them out! Maybe mine came in today's mail...

PS -- Thanks for all the nice comments you left on my post yesterday. My eyes are feeling much better today, and I'm very lucky I can still do some knitting even during the worst symptoms. Of course, I'm even luckier that I just have an annoying condition, not a life threatening one. Speaking of which, go check out Claudia's efforts to raise money for MS. Go knitters!