The Gist of the Twist

I've been on a roll with knocking out the projects these past few weeks. Today, I finished the Boyfriend Socks that I started back in May.

This pattern has been available online for free for years, but I just now got around to trying it. I used some Cascade Heritage Silk in the color Limestone that I bought when Janelle's friend (and now mine) Kris was in Austin for a conference and we spent a lovely Saturday driving around to yarn shops, knitting, and stuffing ourselves with barbecue. Good times! I started these socks shortly afterwards, but they too fell victim to my late spring/early summer knitting doldrums. But it was easy enough to pick up where I left off. I'd forgotten how luxuriously smooth this yarn is to work with. It can be a splitty with my sharp dpns, but totally worth it.

The construction is rather straightforward in this pattern. They're made toe-up using the magic cast-on. I followed the instructions for increasing on the adjoining edge stitches, but I wish now that I'd offset them by one stitch. And I'm not all that great with wrapped short row heel construction, but at least they look uniform.

I really do like the cables and how they drift back and forth across the ribbing in little bunches of three. Once I figured out how to count rows to find my place it was easily memorized. And the generous yardage on this yarn meant I could take these a little further up the calf before the final 1x1 ribbing and the sewn bind-off.

Those are Jeff's feet modeling in the top photo. He'd rather model than put up with my somewhat demanding photo direction. But he did mention how silky smooth these were -- this from a man who thinks most handknit garments are "too scratchy." Maybe someday I'll make a pair for him, although I suppose I'd have to change the name to Husband Socks.