FO: Swirl Socks

The pattern is Swirl Socks be Sulafaye, knit as a Christmas present for my brother. I have such bad luck with Christmas knitting and finishing on a deadline. Though at least he will have his knitting within the year. My poor mother is still waiting for her shawl that I started in 2006.

Easy knitting for the most part: my standard sock with the one stitch cable stitch pattern. Ended up a bit muddy, so I want to try again with different yarn. Now all I need to do is mail them out with detailed care instructions and a dire threat that if he doesn’t follow my detailed care instructions, he will end up with felted socks that don’t fit.

I never thought I’d see my brother in a yarn store, but I wanted him to like his socks so I let him pick the pattern and dragged him along to find yarn. Surprisingly, there was actually very little dragging necessary and I left him fondling the sock yarn while I picked up needles. He was doing what all knitters in a yarn store do: touching everything and going “Oooo, pretty!” even though he’d already found his yarn

Apparently there is at least a little bit of knitter in my brother.

Sock Theory

I’m going to be silly for a moment. I’ve been meaning to post about my socks for some time and since I am steadfastly ignoring graduation on Sunday, now is the time.

I have a theory. My theory is that bad days can become good days with the help of a collection of special socks. Much like a boring class can be overcome by using a pen with feathers coming off the top or ink that changes color, special socks help add an extra bit of sparkle to your day. I have been gathering special socks for about a year or so and I’ve gathered quite a pile of them. Some have names, some aren’t finished yet, some have actual bits of sparkle. So without further ado I give you:

From Left to Right:

My collection of Christmas socks: Snowman Sock #1, Santa Sock #1, Snowman Sock #2 and Santa Sock #2. Snowman #2 is cooler than #1 because he has sunglasses. Snowman #1 is cooler than #2 because he’s more comfortable.

Unicorn Sock. Appeals to the six year old in me. They are much brighter blue in person.

Garish Sock. Half of the strips are sparkly. All of the colors are ridiculous.

My Lucky Socks and my Halloween Socks. My first set of special socks. Work when I need luck and when I feel a desire for very bright orange. Unfortunately, there are holes forming in Halloween Socks so I need to fix them before I wear them more.

Courage Socks. So named because they have actual bits of sparkle in them and because I wore them once when I needed to be courageous and I thought some actual bits of sparkle would help.

Fire Socks. My dear fire socks, my first socks knit by hand. Very soft, fit like a glove for my feet and so comfortable. Also, they look really good with jeans.

Still on the needles, Cyber Socks. Named as a reference to the Doctor Who villain Cybermen. They are a toe of pretty, a body of soft and a sock that will never die. Cobbled together with remnants of the pretty yarn from the fire socks and really soft yarn that I can’t remember the name for. They will be finished very very soon.

And lastly, not appearing in this picture socks, Bunny Sock. The bunny peeks over the top of my shoes. I never thought I would say that socks are cute, but these one’s are.

So those are my bright socks for gray days. Do you have any special socks?