I made a pair of socks! I’ve been really wanting to get into sock knitting lately, mostly inspired by the colorful socks of Amy from The Stranded Podcast. I bought the book Socks from the Toe Up recently, and I chose the Dead Simple Lace Socks as my first attempt. It was also my first time using the magic loop – I normally just do dpns, but I sort of wanted my socks to be an on-the-go project, and projects on dpns are harder for me to travel with. And I actually really ended up enjoying the magic loop.

Since it’s fall now (yay!), I’m excited for all the potential for knitwear in my wardrobe. California never really gets cold enough for a “real” fall outfit (think tall boots, coats, big scarves), but I was thinking that hand knit socks could be a good compromise.

I also think the socks would be really cute with ankle boots! I’m excited to wear them. A lot of my knitting friends keep telling me that they prefer to wear their hand knit socks around the house instead of out, but I’d really like to use them as real socks. Maybe I’ll make a cozier pair with heavier yarn as around-the-house socks.

I made these socks with Madelinetosh Twist Light in the Cosmic Wonderdust colorway. I used a 2 mm circular needle. I did a short row heel and toe, but the pattern could easily be adapted for other toes/heels. I wish I had done a little bit more ribbing on the top because I didn’t really think about how the ribbing gets a little shorter when it’s actually stretched around my leg, and I like the way a tall ribbing looks. Oh well, next time.

I’m excited to get another pair of socks on my needles – I’m going to use one of the skeins I got on my Boston Yarn Crawl. The weather this week looks decidedly summer-like, but I have to go into San Francisco on Tuesday, so I’m hoping to get some clouds and cooler weather then.

I cast on the Gabrielle tunic by Cocoknits as part of a casual knit-a-long with one of my knitting friends. I haven’t ever tried the Cocoknits method before. So far, it seems a little unnecessarily complicated, but I’m going to try to stick with it. What are you all casting on for the fall?