Socktober and other October knitting

"Socktober" was just that - a month of sock knitting, with a little knitting for others thrown in.

The first pair of socks off the needles were my second pair of socks knit from the toe up instead of from the cuff down.  I have avoided this method for several years, and now I cannot imagine why!  The techniques are not difficult and result in a very efficient use of almost every foot of the yarn, reserving just a little for future darning of the inevitable holes in the heels.  The pattern I used is Wendy Johnson's "Sportweight Toe-Up Sock with Gusset Heel" and the yarn is a tweedy Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Socka 6 Fache/6 ply I purchased at Limerick Fibers in Gordonsville, VA several years ago. 

After that pair was complete I dug out the oldest sock yarn in my stash and cast on for another toe-up pair.  Somehow the yarn, a skein of Lana Grossa Meilenweit, had shrunk from 100 grams to 88 grams over the past years.  This is quite possibly because I had started a couple of pairs of socks with the yarn, become frustrated with whatever pattern I was knitting, frogged the socks, and returned the yarn to the back of the drawer - guess I threw away some of the yarn when it tangled too much.  Anyway ... the yarn is now a pair of socks knit with the "Vihtori" pattern designed by Heli Heikkilä in Finland.  I love the opposite swirls of the pattern.

My October knitting ended with another baby cardigan and hat knit for the Anchorage Stork Project.  The yarn Red Heart worsted is from the estate of Norma Jean M. whose son graciously passed along his mother's yarn stash to some of us who knit for community service organizations.  The pattern is one of the "5-hour baby sweater" patterns found free online.