More about the socks

Here is the completed pair:

I know the leg part looks ridiculously skinny because the ribbing "slucks" it in, but this photo shows off the cabling a lot better than the one in my last post (let's hear it for natural daylight), so I thought I'd put it up here.

They were finished just in time. They would have been completed a lot sooner, but my time on Father's Day was seriously dominated by chores and family things, so I couldn't achieve my usual rate of panic knitting productivity. Liz was curious to know how long it takes me to do up a pair of socks. I've never timed myself, so I'm not completely certain. However, I have a general sense that it takes me about 10-12 hours for a pair of adult socks. When I'm on an easy, straight part like the foot or leg, I've noticed that I can get an inch done in about 15 minutes. I believe I'm a fairly fast knitter. I timed myself once and did 25 stitches in 20 seconds; and then did a round of 64 stitches in 59 seconds.

Incidentally Liz, yes, I'd be interested in that link for the video of doing nupps with a crochet hook, can you share?

The countdown

So Moon very kindly served me up virtual coffee and candybars for energy, and wanted to know, with just hours to go before Father's Day begins, how I was coming along on the socks for my dad?

Well, very fortunately, I won't actually be seeing my dad until tomorrow afternoon, so I have much more time than it might have first appeared. And also, they are coming along quite fine, thanks lots. The first sock is complete and the heel and foot of the second sock are done, I just need to knit up the leg.

The socks themselves are my usual plain hat heel pattern, except I improvised a bit of cabling at the top of the legs to make it more special:

That's my husband modelling - he's got a touch longer foot than my dad, and indeed the sock is a touch snug on him (as planned), so I'm expecting it to fit the intended recipient really well.

Incidentally, my husband is also getting socks from me tomorrow, but I completed them a few weeks back, so no worries there. I still have to wrap them though. Rats. Maybe I'll sneak off before breakfast tomorrow...

The pretty

The shawl I wrote about yesterday is now completely done! And further to the nice things I said about the yarn in that post, there was no colour bleeding. I'm serious...none. No blue-tinged water dripping from my hands as I squeezed the piece out after a full-on soak. No colour wash-off on the white blocking towel. Zippo. And look at the colour in these shots! This stuff is seriously colour-fast.

artistic shot

lying flat

detail of the base pattern

detail of nupp section

detail of the edge motif

Excellent! End-of-school-year teacher gift taken care of, well ahead of time.

Now I just need to knit two man-size socks for my dad by Sunday. Arg...