If you are knitting a pair of  Through the Loops Mystery Socks for 2012 and you haven’t worked your way through all three of the already released clues, you may want to look away now because I’m about to show you my socks and I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you.

Everyone that is still here wants to see these, right?

Here they are. I’ve got the cuff, leg, heel flap and heel turn done on both socks and I love this pattern. Sure, it’s kind of a pain in the ass to knit with all those twisted stitches and bobbles. And it’s definitely not one I would choose on my own because of all those twisted stitches and bobbles and the paying-attention-to-the-pattern that comes with knitting them but I am loving the way they look.

The texture is amazing and the design is lovely.

As for the yarn, it’s Woolen Rabbit’s Pearl Sock in the color Pussywillow. It’s a tricky color to capture but I think it’s most accurate in the 3rd photo. You should recognize it from this post. And also this post. Those Gentlemen’s Socks just didn’t do it for me so they were frogged and the yarn has been repurposed for these mystery socks.

I think I made an excellent choice.

I promised you glamour shots of my last pair of socks for 2011 and I always deliver on my blog promises so here they are.

You’ve seen this picture already but it’s bigger this time and these socks are so lovely I don’t think you’ll mind seeing it again. I’m sure you recognize the yarn as Knitterly Things Vesper Sock Yarn. It’s my favorite of all sock yarns and for good reason. The colors are always beautiful, it’s soft and it wears really well.

Of course the most amazing thing about this sock yarn is the striping. Julia’s stripes match perfectly every time. Truly.

The stripes are so perfect that I don’t even have to measure the length of the leg or the foot, I just count the stripes. This makes for very quick progress on sock #2, and that was a lucky break last week as I raced towards finishing them.

Since I didn’t finish them in time for Christmas I will tuck them away and not wear them until next December. It’s like I’ve already got a present finished. It’s a present for me but those are the best kind of presents!

I finished my 12th pair of socks for 2011 on Saturday – just under the wire. I’ll show you glamour shots of those on Wednesday Thursday, but in the meantime here is a mosaic of my sock knitting for 2011.

I love seeing them all together like that. I also love knowing that 6 of those pairs of socks are being worn by people I love.

My daughter Hannah is very fortunate to have a wonderful college roommate. She and Karly met last year and they are like peas and carrots, they just go together. Karly makes Hannah a better student and a neater roommate, and, well, I’m not sure exactly what Hannah does for Karly other than make her happy. That’s pretty good, though, and I’m relatively certain that these two have forged a life long friendship. So what’s a mom to do to show a young lady how happy she is that she’s in her daughter’s life?

Make her socks, of course.

The socks should be knit from the mom’s own special pattern.

And they should include the roommate’s favorite color, purple.

They should be soft and warm delivered just in time for Christmas.

Mission Accomplished.

I had a lot of time to kill while I sat and waited for files to upload over the last few days. Of course I spent it knitting.

Not only did I finish the foot of the first sock but I was able to cast on and knit a few inches of the second. That kind of productivity makes me happy.

I don’t know if I will post something about socks for every Sunday this month but for today at least I’m going with alliteration and talking about socks on Sunday.

Right now I have 2 different socks in progress. This is atypical of me but, you see, one pair is a patterned pair. They are fun and I love them but I have to follow a pattern when I’m knitting them and that means I can’t knit them in the car or at a meeting or while watching important things on TV like football.

So I cast on for a pair of picot edge socks. I started them in the car today on the way home from West Springfield. And you can bet I’ll be knitting away while I watch the Pats this afternoon.

Nothing screams Socktoberfest like a pair of socks made from Knitterly Things sock yarn in a Halloween inspired combination.

Aren’t they awesome? The color is called “Boogie Man” and I just love the combo of orange, purple and black. I don’t know how Julia gets those stripes to match so perfectly but they always do – from their picot edges right down to their toes. It must be magic.

They are perfect for Halloween and I’m thrilled that they are finished in time to actually wear them before the holiday.

Now where’s that witchiepoo costume?

My September socks are finished.

I started these during our Cape Cod vacation. I wanted beach knitting that was simple so that I could enjoy looking around, so that I could drop them in my bag to go play in the water, and so that I could drink beer and not worry about making a mistake. Naturally I used my picot edge sock pattern.

While knitting them on the beach one afternoon my dear friend Doreen admired them. She exclaimed over the softness of the yarn.  She admired the beautiful colors. And she contemplated the incredible feeling of warmth that must come when wearing a pair of hand knit wool socks.

I don’t think she was fishing for me to give them to her.

So of course that’s just what I have done.

I told you yesterday that Hannah brought some mementos from home to make her dorm room feel special. I left one other thing with her that will definitely make her feel special.

Maybe I should say two other things because what I left with her was a pair of new hand knit socks. I told her to think of them as a birthday/going back to college present.

Hannah actually chose the yarn and the pattern herself. It didn’t surprise me that the yarn she chose was Vesper Sock Yarn but I was surprised that she chose a pattern instead of a plain pair of socks. She came downstairs with two different skeins of yarn and asked me how they would each look when knit.

I went on Ravelry and showed her some socks made with each and she actually saw a pair of Monkey Socks that were knit with this particular yarn and she fell in love with them.

I think she was a bit hesitant to ask me to knit these because she thought they were too complicated for me. I like to let her think that I’m especially clever so I didn’t let on that the pattern is one of my favorites, super simple, and easily memorized.

We’re both very pleased with them and I love knowing that she has them with her at school.  I always tell her –  a pair of hand knit socks from mom is the next best thing to a hug.

I knew a contest would generate a lot of comments and I’m glad to have received every one of them. It was especially fun to read about everyone’s favorite sock pattern. Turns out there are a lot of us who like a “plain vanilla” sock and I think that’s a very good thing. The Monkey Sock pattern was mentioned many times and certain designers, like Cookie A. and Anne Hanson came up over and over. Some of you have excellent taste and chose my Picot Edge Sock pattern as your favorite.

Only one of you, however, can be a winner (I always want to say wiener, you know) and this time our winning number, as chosen by the Random Number Generator, is #56. Commenter number 56 was Susan, a long time friend and occasional commenter – perfect. Congratulations, Susan! I hope you’ll love your skein of Woolen Rabbit Sock Yarn.

As for me, I’ll be knitting with this:

A pretty cake of Sunshine Yarn superwash merino in the color Fades Away.

The colors remind me of the blue ocean and sunset filled sky on Cape Cod so they will be perfect for my vacation knitting.

And we won’t talk about how the name Fades Away is reminiscent of what my summer is now doing.