Warm toes

Last week I had to get some socks on the needles, especially considering that I have grown my sock yarn stash much bigger than it really needs to be, but also just because I didn't have any. On the needles that is. Except the swirl socks, but they are way too complicated to take them with and knit a little here and there, or even knit while watching TV or reading blogs. So I started a pair from the OnLine sock yarn that matches the Oxblood yarn and shoes.
I don't really have a "standard" pattern that I would always use for socks, but this is about as close as it gets. Top down, 72 stitches, 2.5 mm needles, k2p2 ribbing at the top, a few decreases in the leg, a Dutch heel (my new favorite that will replace the square heel I used to use most often), decrease back to 72 stitches, kitchener toe. I have "shapely" (someone with a poor selfesteem would say fat) calves, and I always need to do a few decreases in the leg to help keep the socks up, unless I do ribbing all the way to the heel.
Once I finished these, I immediately started another pair:
This is one of those wonderful Trekking colorways that I ordered from Germany (I think this is 76, 78 is what I used for the Pomatomus wrist warmers). Looks very close to the ones I just finished, but this is really much more purple, whereas the OnLine socks are more brownish. The gauge of Trekking and OnLine in almost exactly the same, but Trekking is much softer. Not that OnLine is hard, either, and I certainly don't mind it for socks, but Trekking is easier on my hands while I'm knitting.

Now to the contest for the promised sock yarn. I used Excel (my favorite piece of software, of course) and a random number generator to find the lucky winner. Therefore no pictures of drawing from a hat, or anything. But this way it's absolutely fair, and the geometry or the way I folded the pieces of paper don't matter. ;) And the winner is... (*drum roll*) ...PAT! Congratulations, Pat! Could you please e-mail me using the link in the left side bar, and let me know your name and address, and also what colors you would like in your yarn. I am going to dye some for you in the next week or so, and send it your way.

As far as my favorite project to knit... aagh, I can't choose!! But if I really just think about the knitting part of it, I think Hyrna Herborgar was my favorite. The yarn was very nice and soft, the pattern was interesting and the result pretty. All the other guesses were very good, too, and I could probably come up with a way in which every one of those projects was my favorite. Some are my favorites to wear, some I think are the prettiest, some were fun, some fast, many tought me something new, some gave me a huge sense of accomplishment... I can't think of anything that I didn't really enjoy knitting. I guess it makes sense, since I wouldn't have knitted it, if I didn't like it.

I have also been working on writing out the pattern for the stripy vest. I know a couple of people were interested, so I'll try to get it posted soon. After that, I'll do the same with the zippered cardigan.