World's warmest kneesocks, part 1

Howdy!

Thanks for all the great compliments on the mittens. I went to drop them off at MCYC last Tuesday but had missed Mary Charles, so I went home, devised some additional adornment, and brought them back on Wednesday to universal acclaim. The additional adornment was a string--remember those little strings they put on mittens and you run em through your coat sleeves so you don't lose your mittens? I made this one by braiding all three colors together and sewing it in. It gives Mary Charles additional options for display (before I left I tied them around a lamp- hope that's not a fire hazard!) and will make sure they don't get separated.

Here's my current project:


Aint she purdy? These are Koigu (mmm Koigu) in a blue that is slightly less vibrant than the one in the picture. I am too anxious to post to wait for natural light.

I used the magic cast-on and for the structure of the sock I am using basically comes from Widdershins although I have been altering it rather sacrilegiously. Because my sock has two extra stitches.

The lace pattern is all my own though. I love the way it branches like that.



I have reached a point where, in the next few rows, I will start lengthening the branches to naturally increase the circumference of the socks. In theory it will look like little trees getting bigger and stronger as they grow up the leg. Depending on how much yarn I have in the end they will either have a cuff or not, but I am thinking about adding an eyelet row and threading ribbon garters through there. I don't have much confidence in the socks' ability to stay up.

I am planning to put this guy on waste yarn in the next couple of rows and cast on for the companion sock. On the other sock I am going to reverse the tree pattern for yummy symmetry. This way I won't forget what I did on sock 1 (hopefully) and I'll have a better idea of how I'm doing in terms of leftover yarn.

Gonna place a big Knitpicks order pretty soon and get two circs for socks. ^_^