Slow cooker socks

I finished up a pair of socks last night that have been on the needles a loooonng time – I began them in mid-December.  Given that they are plain vanilla, stockinette socks with a 48 cast-on, these definitely qualify as slow cookers!

They are for Boy 1, who has been so extremely appreciative of his wool socks this year that I made him a fourth pair.  These were my “office knitting,” but there wasn’t much office knitting time around and over the holiday break.The yarn is Fortissima Socka, one of those hearty German 75/25 wool/polyamid blends that wear like iron.  This yarn was offered up as de-stash by Gretchen, and I took it, knowing that sock yarn always get used sooner or later at my house. This is such great yarn for children’s socks – it has 3 plies of solid navy blue and 1 ply of a shifting rainbow-y fiber.  The overall effect is tweedy, yet fun.  But don’t let the resulting simple sock fool you – this is NOT beginner yarn.  It’s smooth, which is good for beginners – but the dark yarn is difficult to see and the rainbow ply doesn’t show up in the same position on all stitches, so it can be really hard to “read” them.  I almost felt blind when picking up the gusset stitches.

I used the eye of partridge heel on the flap again, though with this yarn, you can’t even tell: He wouldn’t take them off after our little photo shoot this morning, which I take as a very good sign.  We are definitely having wool sock weather today! This was “Snowy” (the snowperson’s name) before dinner last night.  This morning, he was horizontal, having fallen under the weight of new snow.  I convinced Boy 2 that “Snowy was just sleeping,” but Boy 1 said “No, he’s not! Snowy’s dead – look, his head fell off!”

Well, it was fun, anyway.  I finally found a good use for the brazil nuts in the nut bowl which none of us like – they make great eyes and mouth.