The Fancy socks for The Husband are finished! I’m much happier with the new toes (the ones where I actually followed the pattern since I had to rip back because I’d run out of yarn).
Before (on my feet) – seriously, do you see these toes?!?


After (on TH):


Pattern: Gentleman’s Fancy Sock
Designer: Nancy Bush
Yarn (main): Lorna’s Laces Solemate in Bigger on the Inside
(toes): Cascade Heritage Silk in 5631 (gray)
Needles: 2.25mm
Comments from The Husband: “Those turned out good. Nice job.” (This is high praise as he’s not yet a handknit sock cult member – but I’m not worried. I can see him walking towards the dark side and on his feet….are handknit socks.)

Ps. Check out what others have finished at Tami’s Amis and Wisdom begins in Wonder and Natural Suburbia

By now, you’ve probably figured out that I have a bit of a Gray fetish. No, not THAT Gray. Gray yarn. So, I went stash diving to find the right gray for the toes of The Husband’s Gentleman’s Fancy Socks. I found 50 shades of gray (ok, 9) and they are (from left):
Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino
Cascade Heritage Silk
Handwerks So Soft Sock – Milkweed
String Theory Bluestocking – Pewter
Socks that Rock Medium – Stormy Weather
Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering – Elegant Elephant
Lorna’s Laces Solemate – Buckingham Fountain
Knit Pick’s Palette – Mist
MacKintosh Iona Fingering – Senka


I narrowed it down to three I’d be willing to part with and let The Husband pick from:
MacKintosh (cause I’m still ticked at this yarn),
Cascade (cause it didn’t cost an arm and a leg)
Lorna’s Laces (cause these socks are Solemate, and I like matchy matchy).
Drumroll, please……….

The toes of the Gentleman’s Fancy Socks will be Cascade. He chose wisely.

Ps. Check out what other folks are working on at Tami’s Amis

Some of you knew this was coming.

I finished the first Gentleman’s Fancy Sock for The Husband. It was knit with Lorna’s Laces Solemate in the colorway Bigger on the Inside and it took over half the yarn.

“No worries, I’ll get more.” I thought in my usual ridiculously optimistic fashion. “I just bought it in December; it’ll be fine.” I called three LYS and no one had a hank, so I ordered some online, requesting the same dye lot if they had it. It came in the mail (different dye lot).
um. no.
It is more of a solid than a semi-solid and honestly, if the first one had looked like this, I would not have fallen under its spell.

Options:
A. rip the toes out the first one and do them in this new yarn (or a contrasting color) – so both socks match. I am very big on matchy-matchy.
B. make the second sock and just knit the toes in the new yarn and the socks won’t match, but they’ll be in shoes, so no one will be the wiser. except me. I’ll know.
C. rip out the whole first sock and redesign it – move the decreases down quite a bit so the sock is shorter and pray whilst I knit.
D. knit the second sock to see how far I get and THEN analyze how much to rip out of the first one and do the toes in a coordinating gray. This was Lisa’s suggestion.

Lisa usually knows what she’s talking about and I’m in no hurry to rip, so I’m going with D.

Ps. In happier news, today is my mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom! I hope you’ve had a lovely day!!!

Pps. Check out what others have finished at Tami’s Amis and Wisdom begins in Wonder and Natural Suburbia