I appear to be in a sock phase! My third pattern release this month is Ropes Ahoy!, a top-down sock featuring a mirrored cable pattern which evolves from the ribbed cuff, knots itself across the front and back of the leg before forming a ribbed heel flap and then continuing down the foot to a ribbed toe.
The idea for this sock came from a nagging idea for some complicated cables that would wrap back and forth across themselves. I had mental images of trellis and climbing plants but couldn't quite decide how I wanted to knit them and, in the end, I just cast on and let the cables cross where they fancied. It's strange how sometimes designs create themselves like that!

Between A Day Out in Bournville and my other August pattern, Sunshine Line Up, my sock portfolio has increased at speed lately, and I've got three other sock patterns in various degrees of development at the moment too.

Earlier this year I won two balls of Knit Picks Chroma Fingering in a design challenge. It isn't a yarn I've used before, and the colours are probably not what I would have chosen myself, but they go very well together. One is a dark grey and the other is a multi in shades of blue/green/grey. 
I do use a lot of fingering weight yarns, but I mostly use either superwash or tightly spun yarns because I'm mainly using them for socks or mittens which get a lot of wear, or for lace patterns which benefit from the definition of a tightly spun yarn. While the Chroma is very soft and squishy, it's also loosely spun and felts easily (excellent for spit-splicing, not so good for socks or anything else that's going to need frequent washing or get robust wear).
I decided to try holding the two yarns together to get something closer to a worsted weight and allow the colours to complement one another in a marled effect. So far so good...

Check back in a few weeks to see what this is going to become!

Anyone who has read this blog before will have heard of Yarningham, the yarn festival in Birmingham last month. (If you haven't, start here!) It was very much a day themed on socks for me, between teaching a sock class and buying sock yarn, but there was one more sock thing. I contributed a sock pattern to the festival brochure. This pattern was exclusive to Yarningham visitors for one month but it is now available for all to purchase from my Ravelry pattern store. This full version includes two extra sizes (Small and Extra-Large along with the Medium and Large from the Yarningham version) so feet with circumferences from 7 1/4" to 9 1/2" are covered.
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The socks are worked toe-up with a gusset and heel flap. They use a slipped stitch rib pattern which works well with solid-coloured yarn as well as with multi colours, especially those with very short colour changes. Just take care not to pull the yarn tight across the slipped stitches or the sock will be too tight to wear comfortably! The stitch pattern is suitable for men or women. Choose a neutral colour for socks neat enough for business wear or go wild with a mad multi for leisure time socks!
Click the photo above or the button below to go to my Ravelry shop page.
Also, if you like socks, keep an eye out for a sock promotion coming to my Ravelry store next month.

I'm finally beginning to feel like I'm getting my brain back into gear. Supposedly it takes one day per hour of time difference to recover from jet lag and that seems to be about right for me. In the meantime, it's been all I could do to concentrate on plain vanilla socks, so what better to use than wild crazy yarn that needs a plain pattern to show it off.
This is Midnight Rainbow Brite self-striping yarn by Mothy and the Squid. I bought the yarn at Yarningham and knew it wouldn't be long before I used it. My kids have been begging me to make rainbow socks for them too. I used 72g for these, from a 100g skein, so I'll have to combine it with something else to get enough yardage for a pair of kid-sized socks too. Or maybe I'll just have to buy another skein.
The colours are amazing, the yarn is lovely to work with, and it held up well to being frogged as well (I'd made the heel flap too short on the left foot so it was too tight on the instep and I ended up ripping back and re-knitting the foot down to the toe).
I strongly suspect there will be more rainbow-striped socks in my future pretty soon.

I seem to have been conspicuous by my absence here lately, but that is mostly because I've been away on holiday for two weeks. I've seen some beautiful scenery, met some interesting people, acquired some pretty yarn, and mostly spent some quality time with my family.
All good things must come to an end though, and here I am home again and feeling like someone has replaced my brain with cotton wool. I know I am not good with jet lag but it's been a few years since I've been abroad anywhere far enough to induce it and I always forget just how bad it is.
Plain vanilla socks only for me for the time being, I think. Luckily I have some lovely fun self-striping yarn just perfect for plain socks.