Still on about socks

I completed the sixth pair of socks planned for my 2010 Personal Sock Club on December 27. Perfect timing, made even more perfect by being able to give them immediately to the friend for whom they were made, as we were visiting her just as they were completed.




The socks are yet another design from Nancy Bush's wonderful Knitting Vintage Socks - Child's Sock in Miranda Pattern. It's unexpectedly lacy with yarn overs and knit 2 togethers forming small, regular geometric patterns. It's otherwise just a classic sock. Very satisfying. I knitted on 2.25 dpns and used Malabrigo Sock yarn in Botticelli Red - a yarn and colour I'd also used for my Central Desert Shawl. Clearly, I like it.

All in all, I've knitted seven pairs of socks in 2010. Several years ago when I took up knitting again I was initially puzzled by the popularity of sock knitting. I couldn't imagine wearing hand-knitted socks with most of my shoes (indeed, I still can't) and was of the view that they were rather useless. But that was before I discovered the delight of wearing knitted socks with the shoes they do complement and the creativity involved in choosing how and when and with what to wear them. It was also before I discovered just how delighted many of my friends are to receive socks as a gift - some are on to their second pair.

So, my 2010 socks:







Together with the red socks at the beginning of my post, these made up the six pairs of my 2010 Personal Sock Club. Details of patterns and yarns are on my Ravelry projects page. Predictably, four of the six patterns I chose were by Nancy Bush. All the socks worked well, though my favourites by far are the extra-long Latvian Socks in vibrant deep-blue Wollmeise yarn. I'm still plotting ways to wear them.

I was a bit distracted from my PSC early in the year when I found myself coveting a pair of short socks with frilled tops from Judy Sumner's Knitting Socks East and West.



These are great fun and have had a lot of wear.

So, on to 2011. Given my Personal Sock Club success in 2009 and 2010, I'm knitting socks again in 2011 - but with a twist. The S61011 group on Ravelry is a group knit-a-long Personal Sock Club - if that's not a contradiction in terms. We've voted on six sock patterns for the year, each with a two-monthly time frame. Socks are to be knitted from yarns already owned, which I've stowed away to have them revealed every two months - hopefully as a pleasant surprise. The first pattern for us all is Socktopus Design's Shur'tugal, and the randomly chosen yarn I'll be using is Knitabulous's Supertwist Merino in perfectly named Pink Salt.



However, I'm not rushing to cast on just yet. I know I have plenty of time for these before the deadline and I have a number of other almost finished projects I really want to complete before I begin yet another round of sock knitting - however enjoyable I've found it to be.