Today is Joshua’s birthday. He is twelve years old and we have celebrated. I made him a pair of socks:

Main yarn is from a mini skein set, Friendship is Magic, by Vivid Yarn Studio. Heels are in Candy by KnittyAndColor.

These came out beautifully. As always, Joshua’s design choices astound me. He picked the order of the stripes, but I decided how wide and how many repeats. He also wanted pink heels. Pink heels! I would have never thought to do pink heels, but they work perfectly! I love letting Joshua take creative control of the things I knit for him. We’ve had two amazing stripy hats in the past, all designed by Joshua.

While the finished product was definitely worth it, I’m not dying to knit any more mini skein striped socks. That was a lot of work and a ton of ends. By the end I think I wove in 56 ends! I cut the heels in and I was scared to death after all that joining and weaving.

All in all they turned out beautifully. If you’re curious, I did a 15 row 2×2 ribbed cuff and then striped the minis every 11 rows. I was going to do 10 but because I can’t seem to count, 11 it is! I used the back join method to join and cut in the heels a la Kirbywirby. He loves them and I’m pretty sure he had a great birthday.

We went home to North Carolina and spent a relaxing weekend with family. One of my brothers made some homemade sausage that was delicious and may inspire me to try my hand at sausage seasoning. We ate a lot, played outside, and shot off fire crackers. My sister-in-law and I made a raspberry lemon birthday cake and we had a lot of fun with the trick candles I had brought. It honestly took Joshua forever to blow them out.

We’re back home to Maryland now, some of us enjoying our new presents, others of us continuing our car knitting:

These are my second pair of revival socks and I’m about ready for the toe. It’s been a great weekend, wonderful to celebrate my not-so-little sweetheart.

YoM day 146-149: Sock knitting

Happy making!