So ostensibly, my main project is currently the Lucky Clover Sweater. But, off the record, not much progress is going on with this sweater. I have most of a sleeve done:

and every so often, I'll do a row or two and neither like nor dislike it. Its a decent project. Whenever I think about it, I think "yeah, I will knit this!" but somehow I just don't pick it up and work on it.

Recently, I am knitting small projects from stash yarn. Like this:

A striped sock! Its a new and exciting 2x2 ribbed variation on the standard striped sock, in Regia color #5340. I do most of my socks this way, with 2x2 ribbing on the cuff and continued over the instep. The ribbing makes them super comfy and fitted.

You know what's cool about ribbing in self-striping sock yarn? It makes the color changes less visible. The color changes in stockinette stitch look funky. Sometimes the stripes are two rows high, overlapping in areas to 3 rows high, resulting in a look specific to self-striping yarn. (Sorta visible in the image on the right)

But with the ribbing, the color changes are obscured. So the stripes just look like stripes, without the strange overlapping. Which makes me happy.

One sock down, one to go.

I have this rule that once the first sock is done, immediately cast on for the second one.

Reinforcement yarn was called in for the heel and toe. It's just plain brown, so doesn't follow the striping pattern, but I think it looks alright. I used the Schoeller Esslinger Stopf-und Beilaufgarn from Elann.com. (man, am I a walking advertisement for Elann, or what??)

Regia Sock yarn on size 1 needles + reinforcement thread = virtually bulletproof heels and toes. It was a fair amount of effort just to do the ssk and ktogs on the toe with this combination. They are *never* going to wear out!

In anticipation of the train trip upstate to my dad's last weekend, I packed the second striped sock. It wasn't that I wanted to work on it, more that it needed to be worked on. Second Sock Syndrome was not going to get me. oh no.

So I knit and knit and knit and knit all the 3 hours up there, reaching the heel turning by the time the train pulled into my destination. And by that time, I was into knitting it again. So over the course of the weekend, I finished it!

(by all means, feel free to ignore the disarray under my bed)

Here are the specs:
Yarn: Regia Mini-ringel sock yarn color #5340 on size 1 DPNs
Pattern: 64 st sock, with 2x2 ribbing on the cuff and instep
Striping: 9 stripe pairs before the heel flap; 6 stripe pairs before the toe.

This makes the fifth pair of handknit socks I own. My goal is to have enough pairs to wear only handknit socks in the winter. Not sure how many this would be... more than 5!