On Dec 6th was my brothers birthday, altough the feast wasn't until the weekend. And what could be a better gift in the cold season than a lovely pair of handknitted socks?
What can I say? I'm glad he only has a birthday once a year!
This pair was pure torture. It all started with the choice of the yarn. Since my brother would never wear anything in bright rainbow colours, I had to look for something more discreet - like a dark blue or grey or brown. It had to fit jeans and his shoes and his hair colour, which is a difficult rich brown with a hazelnut red tinge, and I had to get something where I could get two skeins from, since I wasn't sure, if one was enough.
Right. And what did I do? My brain cell must have been on vacation at that time, because I found myself trying out how to do cables with this project. For the very first time. In my defense, plain stockinette would have been a bit boring, right?
It was endless. It took me six weeks and because of those stupid cables I couldn't do it on the underground either. That would have been a lot of time saved. But no, since I can't stand the hassle with all those extra cable needles and stuff on the commute, I had to squeeze my evening tight, tighter, and even tighter still.
But I made it. And I used all of the first skein, but nothing of the second, so I could return it.
I started with Judy's Magic Cast-On, used the cables from 'Cable My Big Toes' by Helene Rush, did a basic heel with heel flap (Herzchenferse) and finished with Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off.
He was suitably grateful.
