Socks for Barack!

The election day kneesocks are done! They are super cozy and I'm loving the color combo. The yarn is Wollmeise sock yarn - one skein each of Granatapfel (red) and Vergissmeinnicht (blue), with a bit left over in each skein. I alternated ten rows of red with six rows of blue for the striping, with red heels and toes. (That is, this is not self-striping yarn, but you can easily do stripes by alternating skeins of the solid color yarn yourself.)


In case anyone is interested, this is my basic formula for kneesocks (I knit old-school style socks - top down on dpns!): start with about 500 yds of sock yarn (more or less depending on height and size). cast on 76 stitches (19 sts per dpn) and knit k2-p2 around for 30 rows. Switch to k all stitches and decrease by two stitches every ten rows as follows - on the tenth row, where you decrease, k to three sts before end of dpn 1, ssk, k1; k all sts on dpns 2 and 3; then k1, k2tog, k to end on dpn 4. Do this decrease row every ten rows eight times, until 60 sts remain. Rearrange sts so there are 15 on each dpn and proceed as for a normal sock through ankle, heel, foot, and toe. My legs are short so I tend to make my socks about 14" from heel to top of cuff, and this circumference is stretchy in the calf but my calves are about 13.5" around. You can make the circumference bigger or smaller by adjusting the number of decreases and the frequency of decreases - there's no real scientific formula for that, just play around with it until you find the right "recipe" for your own legs. :)


And, most importantly: don't forget to VOTE on November 4th!! (Hopefully you've already registered since I think the deadline has passed in most states by now...) These socks will be voting 100% Obama (hells yeah) but whoever you vote for, make sure you participate. Happy election season!