The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Last spring (2012), while contemplating the many project and blog posts I would be creating for the rest of the year, my brain burst forth with a garden full of new ideas. Suffice it to say, it is now winter, 2013, and few seeds even made it to the garden, little fertilizer was sprinkled, and almost no water was provided.

One small bed of projects I did sow and reap was  the Summer of the Sock, or Sock it to Me, which stretched into Socktember and then Socktober. The drawer of stash sock yarn was going to be empty. Lots of feet were going to be happy, warm, and beautiful. Alas, it has become the Saga of the Six Socks.

Here is what happened:

Sock #1 was begun in April, and accompanied me on a long flight to Montana to say goodbye to a dear friend who had moved there in 2011 to be near her family. As the 3 visiting friends gathered around her bed, she gave each of us a gift. Mine was a needle case she had made as a young woman, complete with her mothers little scissors. Can you believe how perfectly it matched the socks!

The pattern is Baby Cable Ribs from Sensational Knittted Socks.

Sock #2 was started on the trip home. The stitch pattern is the "Waffle Rib" from Sensational Knitted Socks.

Sock #3 is another variation/combination  of the Waffle Stitch and/or Garter Rib. Oops- I forgot to write it down!

Sock #4 is from Custom Knits Assessories- Lace Pattern Socks.

Sock #5 is back to Sensational Knitted Socks- this time, the Openwork Rib pattern.

Sock #6 was begun and finished hastily last month: "six socks" is more alliterative than "five socks." And as I was kntting and thinking about the yarn, I remembered that the friend in Montana was the one who gave it to me several years ago. Beginnings and endings, endings and beginnings. How appropriate! The stitch on the leg and top of the foot is a simple K3P3 rib as a small sacrament to her memory.

And here they all are, in a different order, hung by the chimney with care.

# 3 went to my daughter for her birthday, and #2 went to my daughter-in-law for Christmas. The rest are for me!!

And my drawer of stash sock yarn still is more full than my drawer of completed socks. Guess I'd better get busy!