After many requests I finally started making Travis some socks. I chose to use the Austermann Step yarncolor 17 and I used The Knitters Handy book of Patterns for the sock pattern. I have made the socks in this book many times and they always turn out great. I love being able to knit a swatch and find my guage and adjust the pattern to my guage vs. adjusting my needles or yarn to fit a guage. I used the Lantern Moon rosewood sox stixin size 5 and size 3 for the socks. I needed to balls of yarn because I knit 9 inches of ribbing for the ankles and my brother has big feet. I chose to end the ribbing when I started the feet rather than continue it down the top of the foot. I have a special trick to avoid holes when I pick up the instep stitches and that is to pick up and extra stitch at either end and immediately knit them together. This can be rather awkward but it is well worth the extra effort. I learned this from the tips and tricks section in The Knitters Handy book of Patterns. The instructions in the book for grafting using the kitchener stitch were really well explained and I didn’t have any trouble getting a great toe on the socks. The result is one very happy big brother. Be sure to ask to see his socks when you stop by the shop. He probably will be wearing them.

Rachel, Paradise Fibers