my vote for sock kal!

well, the tuesday of thanksgiving week i received my final bundle of joy for the 2009 rockin' sock club (which i am now 2 1/2 pairs behind! argh!), a gorgeous hank of muted fall tones - perfect for late fall! yum! yum!

in her dyer's notes, tina was chatting about sock patterns that would be great for sock kals. she mentioned patterns such as cookie a's 'monkey' and grumperina's 'jaywalker'. this got me thinking about what my choice would be so i am nominating this dandy little number - 'hepsi's sock'. i found this pattern on ravelry.com. it was designed by heli heikkila, who hails from finland, the land of reindeer (fitting for this time of year with santa and all!).

it is a four row pattern that really only has any action on row 1, so any feeble minded person can pretty much memorize it rather quickly (i managed!). it is pretty easy to maneuver through the english translation. god bless those people who speak a foreign tongue and have english as a second language - sometimes the sentence structure leaves a bit to be desired but, hey, at least they know a second language which is more than i can say for myself! and according to friends, my sentence structure also leaves a bit to be desired!

the greatest thing about this pattern is that you can choose to do your own heel thing! yahoo, that works for me as i am currently having a love affair with the short row heel. it is a real slammer, once you get the hang of it - wham, bam, thank you, mam! done in no time at all! i know what you skeptics will say, it probably won't wear as well as the standard, government issue, gusset heel but, hey, if it wears out, i'll just have to knit a new pair, it's not like i don't have any extra yarn on hand!!! :-)

once i complete the yellow pair, i am on to holiday knitting. i've decided to knit cowls for friends and relatives. i found a number of fun and challenging freebies in the pattern section of ravelry so i'm dying to begin. and besides, i think i'll design a pattern of my own!! happy knitting!