socks...and possibly more socks

It's a good day. My allergies aren't acting up today, so I can breathe. I can even sing and hit the high notes, which I could not do on Sunday. I actually slept properly last night so I'm awake today. And while I do have to spend all day at school tomorrow (9am-11pm, yay. It's easier to just stay and do reading and some writing since I have to work the closing shift at the library than to take the bus home and then take it back again a couple hours later), I don't have to go in at all today. And when I read an article on tagmemics yesterday, I not only knew who the linguists the author was referencing were, I also understood almost all of it. And those extra hours tomorrow afternoon when I'm not reading articles for survey class? I can spend some time knitting. Not sure what it'll be. I need to start some Christmas gifts, and the sock featured below will need a mate.

This is based on the Lifestyle Toe-Up Socks guide. I used the Easy Toe (kinda like the Figure-Eight Toe, only easier), and a short row heel with wraps. Also, I included a gusset increase before the heel and decreased after the heel.

I like this heel. It was easy to do, and the result is pleasing. Since I only have one ball of the Mini Mochi yarn, these will be fairly short socks. I have about fifteen more rounds to go on the first sock. All those safety pins on the foot mark every ten rows.

My next sock project will likely be Alice Bell's Wonderland Socks. I ran across these on Ravelry a couple months ago and fell in love with them. It's taken me a while to decide on the yarn. I particularly like the brown and beige used in the originals, but after re-reading Alice in Wonderland, I decided to do a slightly different colour combo. So I have an off-white and an Alice blue (I know Alice doesn't have to wear blue, but it seemed like a nice choice). I've recently knit a project with the Mission Falls 136, so I am well acquainted with the yarn. I like it. This picture's a little too blurry, but it shows the colours.
These socks will be my first time doing shadow/illusion knitting. I love the different patterns which use this technique, but this is one of the few I've seen that is not a scarf or a dishcloth (not that anything's wrong with scarves or dishcloths, I've knit both, but I like this pattern a lot).

There's also that lace shawl on the needles. I get frustrated with the lace-weight yarn and put it down after only a few rows, and haven't had the time to sit down and just work on it in the last few days. I know I'll adjust eventually, but it may take a while.

Well, I have to do some reading. Au revoir!