I felt a bit at a loss when this was cast off so quickly, so I decided to finish up the classic stockinette car socks. And here's a little montage of them:

Good news for my Norwegian Stocking - she is not destined to spend her life alone. In fact, she may be in good company as it seems a good time of year to be a sock. Although I have chosen to bow out of Sock Wars, I am whole-heartedly signing up to Socktoberfest! Another plot by the lovely Lolly to keep me knitting rather than doing housework or other trivial things.

I have been padding about in my first socks contemplating what the attraction of handknitted socks actually are. It's simple. They're special. I am well aware that Primark sell 6 pairs of perfectly functional socks for £2. They'll keep your feet warm (ish), your shoes from smelling like dumpsters and your slightly unshaven leg from peeking out into the autumn rain. But can it really compare with the a carefully hand-knitted sock that gently cuddles the curves of my (hobbit-like) feet? Of course not. Knitting socks is a pleasure because it is a luxury.

I have discovered something wonderful too - I can knit in the car on the way to work. This is a great guilt-free opportunity to catch up on a simple sock. Don't be alarmed - my boyfriend does the dirivng while I catch up on the happenings of the togs with Mr. Wogan. So, I decided to start a little socky delight for my drive to work...

Yum. The yarn was from my first experiment in Kool Aid dyeing from Project Spectrum. Nice, isn't it?

This is also my first toe-up sock. I have been fearing the toe up method for some time but decided on Mondyay night that it was now or never. Coffee? Check. Biscuits? Check. So I began. I started with Knitty's handy tutorial on toe-up starting points. My first attempt was with the short row toe and was... tore up. This is partially because of my feeble attempt atcrochet. I was not happy. So I moved on to the figure 8 method. Success. In fact, before long, I was knitting away at it like a demon.

The heel went fairly smoothly but needed a little bit of cosmetic surgery to fix some gaps when I was done... but we all could benefit from a little nip and tuck somewhere. My other mistake was to bind off a little too tightly. Still, as you can see from the pics, there's something enchanting about the woolly neon slouch at my ankle.