By now it’s established that I’ll knit a pair of socks for Sparks in the winter, and this year I wanted to have them done before Christmas. And they are.
Most knitters sort of dread knitting for their husbands and boyfriends, because men usually want plain black knitted goods. I’d sidestepped that possibility in the past by first knitting socks with a nice two-color pattern out of Shelridge Farms Soft Touch Ultra, which is currently my very favorite sock yarn in existence. Then the next year I knit socks out of Jawoll Silk, which was dreamy too, and put bands of snowflakes on the toes where no one but Sparks and I will ever see them.
This year he staged a rebellion. He wanted crazy-colored socks. So he got them. This year’s were knit out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts lightweight in… a colorway I can’t find on their website anymore. Sorry, folks. Fail on my part.
Blue Moon lightweight is a great yarn to knit mens’ socks from because it’s thicker than most sock yarn. I got away with only 60 stitches around, for this pair, and need 56 for myself (most sock yarns need 64 for me and 68 for him). The basketweave pattern along the top came from one of Charlene Schurch’s two sock books, which are my very favorite sock books in the world. Woop woop! Socks are done!
