Celebrating Socktober

For many sock knitters, the month of October is a time to celebrate their love of all woolly feet-related things. It's usually about when I start to wear my own hand-knit socks with regularity as well, as this is typically when the weather starts to get cooler (though not today -- we've turned our air conditioning back on because it's supposed to get close to 80F today!). I am happy to knit socks year-round, but it feels fun to do them now and join in with the worldwide community of sock knitters. So it seems fitting that my newest FO is also my newest pattern, which I just published this morning. I'm calling it A Series of Tubes.

You may remember that I knit a pair of socks using this pattern for myself last month, and I didn't originally intend for them to be a pattern because I thought they were too simple. But they got such a strong response on Instagram that I decided to write them up. Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works was kind enough to send me another skein of yarn to knit another sample (the original was a one-off colorway that couldn't be repeated, and I wanted to be sure to knit the sample in something that other people could buy so I could send some business her way), and Rainbow so thoughtfully allowed me to knit the new sample in her size -- wasn't that nice of her? Sport weight socks are so satisfyingly fast, especially when you're knitting them for a foot that's only 7 inches around (though her feet are now 8.5 inches long!). I cast on the first sock on Saturday afternoon and finished the second last night before bed. And I didn't even really push myself to finish them that quickly, either! In any case, the socks are done, so Rainbow is happy (and her feet will be toasty when the temperature drops this weekend), and the pattern is now available on Ravelry and Payhip and is 20% off for the first week using the coupon code TUBEY on both platforms.

I am also pondering my next pair of socks. My mother is up next in the gift list, and I've already pulled this skein of Emma's Yarn Practically Perfect Sock for hers:

The color is a bit off here; the blue is actually more of a green than a turquoise. I'm thinking of doing something with some slipped stitches to break up the pooling that I know will happen with this variegated colorway. That might slow my progress a bit (because I won't be able to knit mindlessly around and around), but I think it'll be worth it. Plus, I feel like I'm way ahead of schedule with my gift knitting this year anyway -- this pair will be the last for the women in my family, and I'm still deciding if I should also knit socks for the guys or do something else entirely.

Have a great rest of your day and week! See you back here on Sunday for spinning!