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.

Wow! Thank you all so much for the deluge of comments on last Thursday’s post. I really appreciate that many of you took the time to de-lurk and introduce yourselves. I loved the comments from my long time readers and friends, too. I certainly didn’t mean to make any of you think that I was considering giving up the blog because that’s certainly not the case. I love writing it and sharing my life with all of you and I have every intention of continuing. I couldn’t imagine not having the connection to this community we’ve all built.

Speaking of community, Kathy and I have decided it’s time for a knit along. We want you all to knit socks (any pattern you like) and we’d love it if you’d knit those socks with Woolen Rabbit sock yarn. Kim is such a sweet friend of ours and she dyes gorgeous colors and we think you should all give her yarn a try. Of course you are free to choose any of Kim’s colors that appeal to you but Kathy and I will be knitting our socks with “Pussywillow” and we’d love it if you all used that color, too.

In fact, I’m giving away this skein of Pussywillow to get a lucky reader started. Just leave a comment on this post telling me the name of your favorite sock pattern and you’ll be automatically entered in the contest. And just for the sake of closure, let’s say the contest is open until midnight on Wednesday, 8/17.

A contest and a knit along. How’s that for jump starting this ole knitting blog?

I decided to get back to Project Spectrum for July so I chose a ball of Zauberball Crazy in shades of blue for my monthly sock project.

I’ve been anxious to try this yarn since I first got it so I was quite excited about starting these socks. I have to say, while there’s nothing truly wrong with the yarn, that it did not live up to the hype.

The way it’s wound made it tangle quite frequently and, while the tweedy shades are pretty, I feel it’s rather soft to hold up well as socks.

Frankly, the whole thing reminds me of Trekking, which is cheaper and wears like iron, so I’m thinking it might be better to just stick with that in the future.

That said, they are lovely and the color changes are subtle and attractive. And the more pictures I took, the more I fell in love with these socks.

Despite my disappointment in the yarn, a new pair of socks in such stunning colors is something to be glad about.

I am also glad that I am on track with my goal of one pair of socks/month, making this the 7th pair of socks for 2011. And they haven’t even all been for me.

How’s that for a change?

When I first thought about having a husband turning 60, I thought about getting a really special gift. Something he would always remember, something he wouldn’t buy for himself, something momentous. And then the party planning started and the money spending started and I realized that I got him a party and that was enough.

Except that it wasn’t, so I did what I usually do for birthdays and I knit him a pair of socks.

I wanted the socks to be extra special, though, so I picked the Treads pattern from the book Son of Stitch ‘n Bitch. Cookie made a pair of these a while back and I fell in love with that intertwined cable going down the side of the leg. Like Cookie, I also made some significant changes, including decreasing the number of cast on stitches to 72 rather than the ridiculous number called for in the pattern.

I used yarn from Judy that I had in my stash. I knew the color was just right for man-socks and Dale and Judy are great friends so it just seemed right that I use this particular sock yarn.

I was worried that I wouldn’t get them done on time, what with all the party planning and preparing, but I actually finished with 2 days to spare.

I wrapped them with one of my special sock labels and threw them in the pile with all of the other gifts. He got a lot of great gifts, including restaurant gift cards, bottles of bourbon, and Civil War memorabilia but he only got one pair of hand knit socks.

I guess that makes them memorable enough.

At the moment we have an antique bathtub sitting in our backyard. I’ll tell you why we have it eventually but for right now, at least, it’s become Hannah’s favorite place to hang out. She goes out there, fully clothed, and sits in this empty bathtub in the backyard. She read. She listens to music. She talks on the phone. All from an empty antique bathtub in the backyard.

When I saw her head out there the other night after dinner I went out with the finished Scarlet Devil Socks and made her put them on for me. Honestly, how often do you get to take pictures of socks in a bathtub in the backyard?

The pattern is called Cable Rib Socks and it was published in Interweave Knits back in Spring 2005. It’s also available in the book Favorite Socks. The yarn is from my wonderful friend Kim and the color is called Scarlet Devil.

Originally these were  going to be sent to a friend who loves red as much as I do. I knit them with her in mind and sized them to her feet. It was going to be a terrific surprise.

A day or two after I finished the socks I was admiring them and thinking about how I needed to get them photographed so I could send them to my friend. And that’s when I saw it. A mistake. A major mistake which meant that they were not good enough to give to a friend as special as this one.

Do you see it?

Now do you see it?

One leg is a full repeat shorter than the other. I do not know how this happened. I took notes while I knit the first sock. I consulted my notes frequently while I knit the second sock. I knew exactly how many repeats I needed to knit on the leg and yet I knit one less. Apparently I cannot count.

I know I could go back and fix this but it would mean ripping out that entire foot and heel and going all the way back to the leg. I’m not doing that. Luckily they fit Hannah and she doesn’t mind the discrepancy in the length of the legs. She used to be a lot pickier so I’m sort of surprised that she likes them with this flaw.

Then again, she likes sitting in an empty antique bathtub in the backyard.