A Feeling of Normalcy

It's been quite a weird summer. Those of you who know me or who have been reading this blog a while remember the days when I always had a pair of socks going. Last year, for instance, I completed 22 pairs of adult socks. Summer, in particular, has always been a productive time for my sock knitting. This year, however, has seen only seven pairs of adult socks, the most recent being knit way back in April. I'm not sure where my mojo went in the months that followed, but when the urge to start my sock knitting again hit a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't about to question it.

Presenting my eighth pair of adult socks for 2009:

Pattern: a variation on my usual 64-stitch stockinette sock
Yarn: ONline Supersocke 100 Circle Color (75% superwash wool, 25% polyamide), color 1053
Needles: two 12" US 1 (2.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: September 8/September 17

I say these are a variation on my regular pattern because I added a little extra reinforcement. For instance, I carried the slip stitch pattern of the heel flap through the heel turn. Because of the way the stitches work out in the turn, it has the look of an Eye of Partridge heel.

I added the same reinforcement for the toe by working the "plain" (i.e., non-decreasing) rows as slip 1, knit 1, and working the decrease rows as usual, getting that same pretty Eye of Partridge effect. I think this reinforcement will be especially effective, because the tops of my toes are usually where my handknit socks start to show a little wear and tear.

I picked this yarn mainly because I wanted something fun and self-striping (I knew that I just wanted to knit a plain sock to get back into the groove), but after a few minutes of knitting I remembered that I didn't much care for it. It's a bit on the rough side, though I know it will soften with a couple of washes and wear well in the long run. At least I managed to get the stripes to more or less match up!

And, of course, because I had some leftovers, I had to use them wisely -- in another pair of socks for Rainbow (the usual pattern, sized down a bit to be newborn size, and size 0/2 mm needles):