If you were going to knit a pair of two-color, knee-high, argyle socks, which two colors would you pick?

October marks the annual knitting celebration of all things footie — Socktoberfest. Today is the beginning of the sixth annual month-long sock bash that Lolly has hosted, and we are all excited to kick it off on the right foot:

As you most likely know already, socks are my favorite thing to knit.

I knit them for myself.

I knit them for other people.

I knit with intricate patterns and I knit pretty plain pairs.

I knit with variegated yarn and I knit with solid yarn. Sometimes I knit with two different yarns at once.

And sometimes I even manage to finish multiple pairs on the same day.

I have a number of socks under way already, and many more exist only in my head (and in the form of potential socks in my yarn cupboard).

I’d like to finish a pair a week — one for each weekend of the month. How many do you think I’ll actually finish?

Or, how many new pairs do you think I’ll cast on?

Back in July, I signed up, as usual, for the Tour de France knit-along. My goal was to get my lace cardigan completed.

Did I finish?

Oh, no. I had two setbacks: First, I had a challenging sock test knit that arose at the last minute that took up most of my knitting time. Second, I discovered I’d made a mistake on the section I did get done. So I ripped most of it back and put the sweater into time out.

But I checked in every day on Ravelry to read others’ progress and to share thoughts on the race. I contributed two stage previews. I felt like even if I had failed in my own goals that it was a successful knit-along.

And then after the Tour ended, Avivah, a fellow knit-along member, pinged me on Ravelry. She dyes yarn and had generously decided that she was going to randomly choose a member of each “team” and send them some of her Hair Ball Yarn — and I was the winner from the Katusha team!

The package arrived last week — and what an amazing package it was!

Want a closer look?

The yarn represents the green mountain jersey, the gold winner’s jersey, blue for Katusha, and red for the polka dot sprinter jersey. The green skein is 100% superwash merino, while the other three are 60% superwash wool, 30% bamboo, and 10% nylon. It’s going to be hard to knit them up because I’ll have to stop squishing them long enough to wind them into balls. I foresee some socks or perhaps a shawlette.

The package also contained these great stitch markers. How timely the week we added a new member to the household! (I write as little claws sink into my ankle…)

But, really, aren’t the labels appropriate (and adorable), too?

Thank you, Avivah! I can’t wait to start knitting!

I never told you about the last pair of socks I finished way back at the end of May:

These are my Stranded in Mount Pleasant Socks. They were knit in the Crusoe pattern from the Spring 2003 issue of Knitty. I used my entire skein of Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Sport yarn in the Mount Pleasant colorway and then had to resort to leftover Woolarina yarn from socks I knit in 2006. I like that a) I recognized before I began the toes of sock #1 that I was likely to run out of yarn and so waited to knit the toes for both socks until the end and b) I was able to find another local yarn dyer to use for the toes, keeping these socks truly D.C. based. (Interestingly, I first encountered Woolarina yarn at the Mount Pleasant Festival. I had forgotten that fact until just now… Eerily appropriate, no?)

The pattern was well-written, but there was some well-documented disconnect between the needle size and the number of stitches you were instructed to cast on. Ultimately, I worked my socks on 52 stitches using 3.5mm needles.

Just last week I was wearing an outfit (neon blue skirt and black tshirt with pink hair elastics) that, had it not been 95 degrees outside would have gone great with these socks. As it was, though, I opted to go with flip-flops and save these for cooler weather.

The annual Tour de France Knitalong is rapidly approaching and I’m not sure what I should do. As usual, there are several categories, two of which are appropriate for me:

Yellow jersey = those tackling something really epic. Maybe you want to try lace for the very first time, or socks. Maybe you want to design and knit a fair isle-inspired sweater, steeks and all, before the riders finish that final lap on the Champs-Elysées.

Polka Dot jersey = completion of languishing WIPs. (The more, the merrier: go for as many summits as you can!)

I could definitely qualify for the Polka Dot jersey. There are plenty of projects that are “under construction” and some of those have been so for a long time. (I can think of two sweaters, several socks, and a purse off the top of my head…) Entering this category would be the responsible thing to do.

Or …

I could cast on something new for the Yellow Jersey. Something exciting. Something that will be forever tied to the Tour de France, in the same way that the mousie socks I knit a few years ago will forever be tied to the 2006 Winter Olympics. I have pretty green yarn that could be a new early fall sweater or lavender-hued linen for a summer cardigan that’s been sitting around forever. Or I could knit the knee socks that were part of Sock Madness.

What would you do?

As you probably know, periodically I like to take part in an online swap. Usually these swaps have to do with knitting in some way, but often there is a secondary focus. This spring’s swap is tea-themed.

Kelle sent me a box. A big box. An exciting box. It arrived as I was on my way out the door for work, so I had all day to think about what might be included in such a box. Anticipation is a good emotion. I’m really good at anticipation.

What could be contained in the depths of such styrofoam peanuts? Hints of blue and green peeked through to offer teasers.

I unpacked. A blue gift bag emerged tied with a stripey ribbon. Green tissue paper filled that. And underneath it all was this bounty:

Isn’t that an awesome package?

And the best part? It’s themed. Kelle incorporated many things from her home state of Michigan to give me a truly unique present.

There are two skeins of Michigan yarn. One is a wool-nylon blend that I suspect will wear like iron and show great stitch definition and that matches the sky. The other is a squishy merino-cashmere-nylon blend in a blue-green colorway called River’s Edge. And there’s a cabled sock pattern from a Michigan designer.

Kelle included three teas. One comes in a travel tin so I don’t ever have to be further from a cuppa than a pot of boiling water. One is a summer Darjeeling blend in a cool canister. I’m looking to kicking off the summer season by brewing some up this weekend. The last one is from a famed Michigan foodie and is my favorite blend of tea — Keemun. Plus there are cookies and chocolate bars. Yum!

Kelle didn’t stop there. She made sure my garden wasn’t forgotten by including gardening gloves and nasturtium seeds and added a little metallic-encased notepad, which will live in my knitting bag. And this great and true card:

Thank you, Kelle! This is fantastic and has really made the receiving end of the Spring Fling Tea Swap a ton of fun! I hope you enjoy your end of the swap, too.