Things are going well over here at Candy & Bagel. Over the weekend, I was able to finish a couple of sock projects: One for my friend, and one for myself.
1) Handspun Malabrigo Socks
Yarn: My own handspun from Malabrigo Nube roving in "Piedras" colorway, I purchased it from my LYS, Yarn del Sol in Mission Viejo.
Needles: US 0/2.0mm
Pattern: Simple Skyp Socks by Adrienne Ku
Thoughts: This pattern has become one of my favorites. It's so easy to remember, it's almost like plain Stockinette socks, but a little more interesting to knit. It requires very minimum of my concentration, so that I can take the project to the movies or knit nights, but not too complicated that I'm going to mess up counting or stitch pattern.
The downside to these socks is that I had forgotten that the roving was not superwash. So these are NON machine washable socks. I do handwash all my socks anyway, but I certainly like the option. I might cry if I accidentally felted these beautiful socks.
2) Vanilla Latte socks for a friend
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll in "Duchess Heather" colorway
Needles: US 0/2.0mm
Pattern: Vanilla Latte Socks by Virginia Rose-Jeanes
Thoughts: So these are basically in the same configuration as the Simple Skyp socks, except they were even simpler. These were knitted so quickly.
What I like about Stroll sock yarn is that they're machine washable and they last pretty well. They do get some pilling, and they're splitty when you knit with them, but they're still decent quality yarn, especially at that price point ($4.69/ball as of today's date; less than $9 for a pair of socks!).