Well, they will be, when I get them done. I’m knitting them with worsted weight yarn, KnitPicks Wool of the Andes.
Yes, that’s an insane number of needles in that sock. Eight, to be precise. The sock is based on the Ukrainian Socks in Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. I love the color pattern on those socks. Since the stitch count is different, I had to choose different stitch patterns that would fit into a 10 stitch repeat instead of a 16 stitch repeat. I’m keeping the peasant heel, sometimes called an afterthought heel, but messing around with it a bit. I’ll do a plain blue toe, no pattern on it for me. I don’t want them to be too bulky.
I didn’t want to go all the way to the toe and find out that the sock would be too long or too short, so I’m doing the afterthought heel before I finish the toe. I put the heel stitches on my short dpns before I took out the waste yarn, because I like the security of having the stitches accounted for before pulling the waste yarn.
Enough needles for ya?
We’re snowed in here in PDX, and are having freezing rain on top of that. There’s a crunchy crust of ice on top of the snow, but it’s not so hard that I can’t crunch through and walk somewhere. It’s just a lot of work. I’m hoping it all thaws gracefully when it should. I’m glad we played in it yesterday before it got crusty. I was glad to have these.
These are the Selbu Mittens from Folk Mittens by Marcia Lewandowski. I made them years ago, but they’re still in great shape. They were a bit big when I made them, so I felted/fulled them a bit in the sink. This made them fairly wind-proof, too. Perfect!
I think the birds are hungry. I threw some seed down on the snow/ice under the bird feeder. There have been birds all day, and Mookie has been enjoying the view.
“Hey, it’s me!”
“Here, under the bird bath.”
“Wanna come out and play?”
PDXKnitterati 
That’s an amazing amount of needles you have there! *grin* The socks are looking fantastic – great idea to do the afterthought heel on that pair.
That sock looks amazing! Kind of intimidating with all those needles, LOL, but amazing nonetheless!
My poor birds…I haven’t fed them in ages. If we ever get snow, though, I’ll have to get out there because I love watching them. Want to share some of your snow with me? 🙂
Yes, the sock looks like “pick up sticks”. Your work is beautiful, both socks and mittens.
I did the same thing awhile back. Except I threaded the foot on a long circular. Once I finished the heel, I figured out I could finish the sock on the circular ala Magic Loop and that’s all I’ve used since then.
Coming from a die hard DPN user.
Oh I love those socks but am way too scared to even try that. Wanna come teach me color work, please???
We are snowed in here as well. You are using your time well! Those socks are beautiful and look so inviting. I wish I had a pair.
Stay warm!! All that snow down in the PNW area has really wreaked havoc up here in Anchorage! The socks look great – the # of needles is mind boggling! Love the mittens – I’m in the mood to knit some mittens, think I’ll go & pull that book out. Happy holidays!
Beautiful color work. I looked at the photo before reading the text and thought, geez, that’s A LOT of needles! This was before I realized it was a sock (I’ve been knitting so many mitts lately, mitts is all I have on my mind these days, lol), and that one set of needles are part of the heel, and the other set are the rest of the foot.
Love the socks, really love the mittens. Beautiful work as always. My cat enjoys watching the birds (and the horrible squirrels who are eating all the birdfood) at the bird feeder too. We call it kitty TV.