Sent by Sarah

I don't think I will even quite understand the love of socks that my man has. Seriously. He wrote me a letter in October saying, "If all I got were socks for Christmas I would be so happy." That's a direct quote. Since he likes homemade gifts, making him a pair of socks seemed like the obvious option. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy these were. I was even happier to have them finished before Christmas.

I found the pattern on Ravelry and decided it was the one to try. It was free, it had been rated as easy by others, it was a design for men, and I liked the design. I used the yarn that the project called for and knit these up in a size medium. I used a little of 1 ball in the main color (Orca) and almost the entire ball of the toe/heel/stripe color (Tahitian Pearl.) 

I omitted some changes to the original design while working on these socks. I decided to skip the square block because I thought it was a little random. After reviewing the directions for the heel I was a little confused so I decided to use the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. Her YouTube video was very easy to follow and I can officially say that I have made a heel which is just short rows! 

Sometimes I think that I underestimate my skills as a knitter. While I still have so much more to learn, I feel like I am doing a really good job as a self taught knitter. I used a Klutz book to learn and now I turn to YouTube for any additional help. Here's to trying new things! Hoping I can expand my knitting even more in 2015!