Socks 10, 11, 12 & 13

Are these not the cutest! The hairy legs on the right belong to Paul and he is wearing a pair of simple socks made out of wonderful to knit Lana Grossa sock weight yarn in the Sunset color. I wanted a pair of red socks and these fit the bill ... sort of! They are really more pink than anything. I experimented with a heel flap that is not just plain knitting but includes an extra yarn to make a stronger heel that will take longer to wear out. I also used a different toe pattern that makes a more squared off toe that is Kitchener stitched together. They are pretty comfortable with that extra cushioning in the heel and with a squared off toe. I can't wait to wear them with jeans this fall. These are 10 and 11 in the great sock adventure.

The pale legs on the left are mine and I am wearing another simple pair of socks made out of Fortissima Socka yarn in a color called Stars and Stripes. I hate this yarn as it is pretty frizzy, but I was sucked in by the sample socks and the patriotic colors. The matching of the stripes between the two socks went well until I got into the foot. It should not make a difference when I wear them as the wacky stripes should be hidden. I used the squared off toe as in the previous socks and tried another method of stregthening the heel flap. The method I used is a stitch pattern where you slip every other stitch every knit row with the purl rows done normally. I don't know if its because I hated working with this yarn or that the pattern seemed pretty lame but I so liked the doubled yarn stregthening in the previous socks that I may keep with that method. These are socks 12 & 13 in the great sock adventure.

Both pairs of socks washed and dryed beautifully even when mistakenly combined with some gross towels that were saturated with Alex's laest intestinal distress. That meant they were washed in hot water and dryed on the higest temperature availble. They still came out great which says I probably should not worry about maintenance.

The left over yarns are being used up in making little tiny hats for pre-mature babies. There are so cute! They are even too small for the dogs. I will try to take a picture of them when I get a critical mass to donate.

Have a great week!