In case you thought I had stopped knitting...

...I decided to take a wee break from my studying to show off my Mother's Day socks. I finished these socks a few days ago, but I haven't been able to post them because a.) I've been reading like 500 pages a day for my oral exam; b.) I've been cramming for my language exam (which I took on Friday and probably failed!); c.) I'm falling down because I lost all sense of the external world (due mainly to the fact that I had to make a fairly difficult decision within a small amount a time); d.) I was procrastinating by messing with my blog template and reading other knitting blogs; e.) I decided I would make Jaywalkers before I realized that I had two mate socks that needed to be knitted up first; or f.) I was making my boyfriend crazy with my moodiness caused by stress.

Five more studying days to go, and hopefully I can have my life back again.

I guess I should say what yarn I used and how many stitches I cast on and all that.

For these socks, I used 1 and 1/4 skeins of KnitPicks Sock Garden in the Hydrangea colorway (discontinued). I cast on 60 stitches on size 2 Addi circulars. I made a 1 and 1/2 inch 2x2 rib and a Sherman heel. Here is a picture of the back of one of the socks, so you can see the Sherman heel. I'm not a fan of the Sherman heel, but it looked easy enough and it was easy, but I don't necessarily like the way it looks or fits.


The foot of this sock measures 9 inches, which fits a 7 and 1/2 woman's foot. Luckily my mother and I wear the same size shoe, so I was able to try on the sock and know if it would fit her. I only decreased to 20 stitches, instead of the usual 16, on the toe.

I know now why you should decrease to 16 stitches: it fits better.

If you're a new sock knitter and you're making your toe by decreasing and then using a kitchener stitch, you will think your sock looks too squarish at the toe. Do not despair. It should look this way. It's square because, as I know now, that square is made to hug your big toe and maybe the toe next to it (depending on how your foot is made). The tip is not meant to hug all the toes. That little tip that looks so square to you will naturally find it's way to that big toe of yours and it will feel oh so nice. From now on, I'm going to always decrease to 16 stitches. I can feel a world of difference in comfort between 16 and 20 stitches.

I hope my mother likes these socks. I loved working with this yarn. I used to not like variegated yarns, but I love working with them now. I love seeing the color changes and how the colors look next to each other--so many little peaks and valleys, so many miniature wool landscapes.