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

Work on the Gentleman’s Fancy Sock continues.
I got to the heel and realized that the leg was 9.5 inches instead of 8.5 which made it just a bit taller than I’d have liked AND used a bit more yarn than I’d have liked. This MAY have been caused by the fact that I went up a needle size from gauge to make the sock bigger and thus more likely to fit AND to allow me to use my brand new Sig Arts needles. (Yes, I know going up a needle size might make the socks wear out faster and isn’t what I should have done, but I didn’t want to have to modify the whole pattern for more stitches around and The Husband’s feet are larger than the pattern)

I digress. I thought, I’ll just rip out 10 rows and it’ll be 8.5 inches and maybe I’ll have enough yarn for the second sock. Tried the sock on The Husband again and he pointed out that if I just scooted the whole sock down an inch, it was going to be loose around the ankle (thanks, decreases). In order to have the sock fit, I’d have had to rip out like 5 inches of knitting.
I opted for plan b.

The sock is a little taller than designed and I need more yarn. Wish me luck!

Ps. To see what other folks are working on, go check out Tami’s Amis.