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Real socks! Real comfortable!

Materials: 1 skein Trekking XXL in some insanely bright colorway (75% wool, 25% nylon). Size 2 bamboo dpns.

Time: One month of on-and-off work.

Cost: $13.

Socks. Are. Fun. They're brainless enough to knit while reading, and portable enough to shove in my bag or backpack in case I get bored. Moreover, it doesn't matter if your gauge is a little off or they look funny -- they're friggin' socks, and can be as loud, ugly, and quirky as you want to make them. Lastly,wool-blend socks are great on cold floors, and super comfortable.

These socks were constructed via an assemblage of online instructions. I used the figure-8 cast on for the toes (demonstrated here and here). Using this pattern as an approximate guide, I knit until the sock hit my leg and then did a short-row heel. I couldn't find any really good, detailed online instructions about how to pick up wraps, so suffice it to say that I had to start the heel over three times to get it right. After that, however, it was all smooth sailing -- the legs were knit in a 3x2 rib, and the tops in a 1x1. I cast off using the first option shown here, and voilà.

The yarn got lots softer after washing, and the cuff stretched out as well. They're a little large, because I had a hard time telling how snug they were when I tried them on with the DPNs, so I'll probably go down a needle size for my next pair. The only blatant problem with them is that I miscalculated the number of stitches that I needed to short-row for the heel, so the heels come to a very sharp point. I think of them as built-in blister protectors.