First FO of 2009: Wheelie Socks for Dani

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They are very, very, late, but Dani has her socks! And she loves them, too, which is nice for everyone involved. She should though, since I let her go through my socks and pick a pattern she liked and go through my sock yarn and pick what she wanted them made out of. That mercifully took the guesswork out of it for me. Of course, this means that the sock queue needs updating:

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. Something sockish for Dani (possibly booties?)
   
10. Indestructible socks for Jon

So close to done! Actually, I'm closer than this would suggest - for reasons to be detailed at some later point I think Van's socks are on permanent hiatus, and I've actually started Jon's socks (which will hopefully be durable) already. I will conquer you yet, Sock Queue!!

Yarn - Hipknits sock yarn in pudding (100 grams, 100% wool). I bought this yarn way, way back when I first started the sock queue because I liked the contrast in the colorway, and planned to make socks for myself from them. I even started a sock, once, but I didn't like the way the pattern looked and ripped it. It's found a better home now.

Needles - Addi turbo size 1 circulars. So trusty.

Pattern - I used this pattern, which I adapted from the Wheelie steering wheel cover from Knitty. I love this pattern, and will probably mae myself another pair of these socks. They're stretchy without being all lose and floppy and still fun to knit because of the dropped stitiches. Here are the modifications:

• I did these toe-up with a short-row heel instead of top-down.
  
• I shifted the pattern on the top of the foot over by one stitch, so that the first and last stitiches were purls instead of doing it as a straight 2x2 rib.
• I worked a 2x2 rib (no increases or drops) on the back of the leg for the five rounds at the start of the leg section. It just looked nicer this way.