Sunset Scales

I love knitting socks, but I hate to wear them. It's the beach bum in me. I'm a barefoot kind of girl and when I do wear shoes they're almost always open toed. Thank goodness I live in California and can get away with this pretty much all year long. But, as I mentioned, this leaves me with an urge to knit things I won't use. Luckily, my mother-in-law has come to the rescue. Mom loves socks and has the same size foot I do. Socks also happen to be a perfect thing to knit when breastfeeding, as they're small and light. So right after Mark was born I made Mom a pair of Monkey Socks from Knitty. I didn't get a chance to snap a picture before she whisked them away, so I'll have to see if I can snap one the next time I see her. The yarn was some small producer whose name escapes me at the moment, I got it from a swap on the Knitty board.

I was in Nine Rubies a couple weeks ago and came across a hank of Luxury Sock and Shawl yarn from Baywood Yarns in the Summer Sunset colorway and immediately thought of Mom. So I brought the yarn home and decided to get creative with it. I pulled out my Vogue Stitchonary I got for Christmas from Grant and found a snazzy lace pattern. A little swatching for gauge and off I went. I can't decide what to call these socks, but Grant pointed out they look like they have scales. At any rate, I thought I'd post a couple pics of them for your enjoyment.

I've got to say that Jo over at Baywood is a dying genius, just look at how nicely they stripe, no pooling anywhere! And the base she uses for this yarn is decadent, the silk gives it such a nice shine and the wool gives it very nice structure. If ever I wore socks, I'd make them from this stuff. I'm hoping Mom likes them.