Socks!

I haven't been working on my striped quilt, because I was knitting socks for my mother's birthday present (not to worry about spilling secrets--she's not a net-surfer). I finished them last night, and here they are:

I taught myself to knit socks this past winter, when I was working in Massachusetts for a few months, and this is the fifth pair that I've made. Sock-knitting always seemed impossibly complicated to me, but with all of the tutorials available on-line, I finally had the means to develop some new skills, from casting on to turning the heel. Here are a few of the sites that helped me the most:

For casting on: Judy's Magic Cast-on
The Fleegle heel: See Liat Gat's beginner sock pattern on Knit Freedom
The slip stitch heel: Toe-up, slip stitch heel sock pattern from knotanotherhat
Wrap and turn (W&T): Knitpicks.com
Bind-off tutorials for K1P1 and K2P2 binding: Liat Gat on Knit Freedom

I use the Magic Loop method, which requires just one set of circular needles. For my mom's socks, I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn, an 80-20 wool-nylon machine washable yarn, and US1 circular needles. The cuff is in garter rib: alternating rows of K2P2 and knit all around. On the top, I used a K2P2 ribbing, which required learning a new bind-off. Thanks goodness for Liat Gat's great video tutorials!

Now, back to quilting!