Time Flies When You Fair Isle

It's Sunday evening and J is already back in Chicago, having only arrived home on Friday afternoon. Fortunately he was home long enough to open his Hannukah presents, including the socks I haven't been able to show until now. Here he is, modeling them for you:

Pattern: Leg stitch pattern adapted from Gentleman's Sock with Lozenge Pattern, heel and foot from Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock, both from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Fortissima Socka (75% superwash wool, 25% polymide), color 1029, two skeins, purchased from Pittsburgh Knit & Bead before it closed
Needles: Two US 1 12" Addi Turbo circs

These were a fast knit, but done in fits and starts when J wasn't around. The heel of the Plain Winter Sock is J's favorite for fit, but I thought he might like something more interesting than the usual ribbing for the leg. He's quite please with these, and they fit him perfectly. Here's a detail shot:

His next pair of socks will be bright red, as requested, but they'll be the boring usual (i.e., Plain Winter Sock). I think I could probaby knit a pair of those in my sleep.

Meanwhile this weekend, while J did work on his computer most of Saturday afternoon and evening, I used up some stash making a hat for his little cousin, who will be the flower girl at our wedding. This gave me another good chance to practice my fair isle technique.

Pattern: Basic stockinette hat with spiral decrease at top; snowflake motif from Knitting for Dummies
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (100% wool), Bright Red and Winter White, less than a skein of each
Needles: US 7 Addi Turbo 16" circular and Susan Bates dpns

Started/Completed: December 16/December 17

All in all, a very satisfying knit. The fair isle portion is a bit wonky still, but I think it'll even out with blocking. The recipient is about 3 years old, so this may be a tiny bit big on her, but I thought it would be better for her to have room to grow into it.

The coolest part about the fair isle portion is that you can see the pattern in reverse on the other side:

(Sorry for the photo quality; for some reason the camera wouldn't take a non-blurry photo.) I've already started a smaller hat for the flower girl's little sister, who's about a year and a half old. This one will have a roll brim in red, and then I'll slowly work in the white a stitch at a time to transition to all white -- the idea is to look like snow falling -- probably ending with an umbilical cord knot at the top. Should be another fast and satisfying knit!