The Fourth Pair of Socks

If you've been reading the blog, you may recall that my sock goal for 2014 is to knit 6 pairs. (Do other people have sock goals? We knitters are an odd bunch.) Seemed like a great, easily achievable goal when I made it back in January, and I'm doing decently well so far. I knocked out 3 pairs (Strawberry Fields socks, pink Twilight socks, and the Ice Cream socks) by mid-March, started this fourth pair (the heel is from the pattern Love Socks, but otherwise I did my own basic sock pattern, with stripes), and then they lingered for months mostly because I was knitting samples for my designs. I decided that enough was enough, so last night, during a True Blood Season 3 marathon (and by "marathon",  I mean 2 episodes, because that show is intense), I finished the second sock.

I'm pretty proud of these socks because I made them entirely from leftover sock yarn. All of it is from Knit Picks- gray Stroll, ice-cream colored Stroll hand paints leftover from the Ice Cream socks, and the pink heart is one of the repeats from some leftover Felici. I will admit that I did not pay enough attention while making these socks, and they are far, far from my best work. There's some laddering happening, and the intarsia heart is totally wonky, and there is not nearly enough contrast between the stripes, which should really be 4 rounds, not 6, but you know what? I don't mind that much. They go on my feet.

I'm leaving for a visit to the homeland of South Dakota in two days, and I'm thinking that I will start pair number 5 on the plane. I think I want to do the Charade pattern that I found on Rav, because it fits all of my sock pattern criteria: easy, no colorwork or cables, free, and a stitch repeat of 4 so I size them down. I have skinny ankles. I'm going to use this gorgeous Dream in Color Smooshy in a pretty lilac-y color.

 Really though, this all feels a tiny bit silly, since we're moving to Louisiana in August, and the coldest it ever gets there is like 50. Not sure I will need so many pairs of wool socks. I think at this point I'm knitting them solely because I like to open my sock drawer and see so much cheerful. That makes me happy enough to carry on.