Kneurotic Knitter: Fat Socks and Skinny Socks

It's been slow, but surely, I have been knitting. While there are a few other projects in the works, I finally finished this!

SKINNY SOCKS
I started & finished the first sock on my bus tour down to NYC (10 hour bus ride one way) a few months ago. And while the pattern is not difficult, the variegated yarn was a little hard on my eyes. I tossed it aside but now finally finished it! Because I finished knitting the first one such a long time ago (I did jot down notes on the pattern, but I completely don't understand what my notes mean), there are a few inconsistencies between the two. Hopefully no one can see except for me! This is Retro Rib socks from Interweave Favorite Socks and I used the recommended Kroy yarn.

FAT SOCKS
When I went back to my parents' place, I found many hideous finished projects from my early days (boxy sweaters, fair isle vests) that I thought were cool at the time but the color combinations absolutely yucky. The yarn was decent quality - Shetland Chunky
... part wool, part acrylic = durable
... chunky = fast!

I frogged them and had all these little balls of Shetland Chunky in various colors. At one point, I envisioned saving them for an updated fair isle vest but when I saw these chunky socks at suggested 5.5mm, how could I not try them? They are from Paton’s new book - Next Steps 4: Socks and Slippers. The book is great, about $6 and has many basic and some not-so-basic patterns.

I whipped these fat socks up in a few episodes of CSI. They would be great for lounging around at home in the winter, or better yet, fast Christmas presents!