Argyle!

I didn't do much Christmas Knitting this year, which is either a blessing or a disappointment, depending on who you are. I pick my Christmas projects very carefully and both the ones I worked on this year were specific requests. My grandpa asked for a pair of socks and my brother asked for a pair of convertible fingerless glove/mittens. I love making things that I know will be appreciated.

My Grandma used to make handknit argyle socks for Grandpa back when they were first married, so I figured I'd give them a shot. I ordered the yarn in September and cast on when I got the package a few days later. I put the last stitches in on December 21st.


Pattern:
Based on Minerva's Argyles, sized for a 10.5 men's foot.
Yarn:
Knit Picks Gloss, 1.5 skein burgundy, 1 skein mushroom
Needles:
US 2 circular on the flat, US 2 dpns for the toe
Notes:



Oh goodness, argyle is a seriously major project. I like color work, but argyle is done intarsia style, so it has to be knit flat with a seperate strand of yarn for each color section. Most clever intarsia knitters wrap a section of yarn onto a bobbin to keep the extra from getting in the way. Since this was my first project, I wasn't sure how much yarn to bobbin up, so I wound the yarn into smallish balls and worked like that, but this resulted in a ton of fidgety twisting, balls rolling away from me, and slow slow progress as I had to stop and reset everything every few rounds. It was about the least portable project I've had yet. It involved a huge seam up the back

(have I mentioned how I loath seams?) and a whole lotta duplicate stitch to put on the cross marking. Not hard but was a little tedious.



Of course, I didn't take a picture of them completely finished, but I was pretty pleased with the end result and Grandpa loved them. He said that store bought socks just don't have the same fit as a handknit and, of course, he's right. If he likes them and wears them it's completely worth every minute of work.

I'm pretty sure I'll do more argyle someday. I know better than to swear off any technique for the rest of my knitting career. But I don't think I'll be doing them any time soon and I'll absolutely be using better technique!