Way back last May, I started a pair of socks. The Whitby socks from , to be exact. You don't remember them because I never posted about them. There wasn't really anything interesting to say. I finished one sock, started the other, and was wholly unimpressed. They got put away in favor of something else.

This weekend, as part of my continuing quest to *finish*, I took them out of hiding. I intended to use the yarn to knit the instead. But you know what? These socks are okay! They'd make decent winter socks. Plus, one is already done... Onward to finishing!

Here's the already finished sock:

The second one is almost to the heel:

Maybe they are not my favorite pair of socks ever, but the pattern is fun. It goes really fast. I am using size 3 needles, and recycled sweater yarn.

The main pattern is made up of two 6-stitch cables, separated by a panel with a knit/purl pattern. This knit/purl pattern is ingenious.. its a 5-row diamond whose sole function is likely to keep track of rows. Each time the diamond is complete, its time to cross the cables. No row counting required! Love it.

Doesn't it seem like I just barely started knitting these socks? Just one of the joys of pickup and finishing a languishing WIP - it feels like a new project, but is done in half the time!

Yarn: Recycled from an Old Navy Sweater
Pattern: Whitby Socks from by Nancy Bush
Needles: Size 3 Clover DPNs

Notes: Great pattern, easy to memorize, and just complex enough to keep your attention. I counted the cables to ensure identical socks: 10 repeats from leg to heel, then 9 repeats before the toe.

One quite annoying feature of Sock 1, in fact the main reason why they went unfinished for so long, is the loose stitches at the join. I was especially irked by the way the ssk stitches on the gusset pulled away from the rest of the stitches. By some stroke of luck, this was much less apparent on Sock 2.

 

Same exact yarn, same exact needles. I can't imagine my sock-knitting skills improved that much between May and now. Maybe my knitting got tighter? Its a mystery. The important thing is, these socks are done!