FO (finally): Charade Socks

I finished Brian's socks finally!

The colorway in this picture is dead-on. Kindly ignore the weird bright greenness of the other pictures below.

Yep, the first of the Christmas presents are finally done. Which leaves my current sock queue like so:

1. Charade socks for Brian
2. River Rapid socks for Jennie
3. Vinnland socks for Van
4. Millicent socks for Sam
5. Rhiannon socks for Mandy
6. Spiral boots socks for Leila
7. Socks for Mom
8. Socks for Stepdad
9. Single cotton sock for Jen?
10. Indestructible socks for Jon

Whew. Load off my mind. Onto the knitting details.

Yarn - I finally found the yarn tag! I had to look all over for it, though. I found it in our bookcase -- as if someone (maybe me, I don't know) was using it as an erstwhile bookmark. Actually, it probably wasn't me, as I tend to dog-ear pages. In my circle of friends, this is basically as greivous a sin as eating babies. So it was probably Jon.

Anyway, the yarn is handpainted by wooldancer in the sublime marina colorway. It's 100% superwash merino (around 380 yards), and I have to say it was pretty awesome. Brian's got excellent taste.

Needles - size 2 addi turbos. Same ones I used for these.

Pattern - Charade by Sandra. This stitch pattern is super easy, which makes for good mindless knitting. Like always, I basically ignored the actual directions and just winged the sock construction, resulting in major modifications:

• The toe-up fairy strikes again! I casted on 24 sts (12 per side) using the figure 8 CO, and increased until 72 sts for the toe.
• For the foot, I worked about 50 rounds with a stockinette sole. This isn't a mod...it's just hear for completion's sake.
• I learned how to do short-row heels! Or, as I shall now call them, "heels brian-style." For these, I wrapped 10 sts on either side.
• I worked about 2" in pattern for the leg, and then worked 2" in 2 x 2 ribbing for the cuff. For that, I continued the plain ribs up the cuff and changed the textured sts to purls, cause I thought it looked cool.
  

On the non-Christmas knitting front, I've decided that weekends are for selfish knitting. So, I started a pair of gloves! I almost finished the first one.


The design is based of the ampergrabbers I made in May, and the traveling ribs are from these socks. They don't have a name yet.