more sock issues...

I haven't talked about socks for awhile but while I was still in circular knitting mode I thought I'd dash off a couple of pairs - complete some of my to-do list and have a few spares for random gifts...well, 4 pairs completely depleted my stock of nice sock yarn! ouch! so I had to spend an hour or so replenishing - that on-line shopping? ya gotta love it! You get to meander through the pages, make your picks, hope for the best and savour the moment your parcel is delivered. Then, you get to go through the whole retail therapy all over again because you forgot what you ordered!
I'm excited! I found some non-wool sock yarn (Berroco Comfort Sock), multi-coloured (which is, I think, why I love socks so much - I can use colours I would never normally touch) at a really decent price - under $10 Canadian -that's probably only $5 in US$ right now- for the large 3.5 oz ball. I'll let you know how this works out!
Back to knitting the socks. I've finally realized that not all sock yarn is created equal! I had a full 100g/425m ball of 'Opal', made in Germany - the ocean-looking ones in the centre - I originally bought 2 balls of this one because I figured it would do well for male or female (I did make son Derek, a pair in the fall and he was so pleased with them!) and when I'm making socks, I plan by the size - these are ladies 8.5 so will do for girlfriend Cathy who prefers subdued colours and I know she doesn't read this regularly ;-). I've used 'Opal' before (love it but I can only find it in US yarn shops) and it is very nice, knits up at T6../8.. no problem and makes a nice sock that holds shape well. The red/royal/yellow (has Donna's name on) was from two 50g/210m balls of a Canadian brand 'DGB Confetti'-made in Italy - same for the brown/tan/blue (I forgot to put Manfriend birthday on the list - I usually just cook for him but since the manfriend hoodie he seems to think I should knit too!). I've had these (confetti) for a long time, can't remember why I haven't used them before...
The 'Nipigon nylon' version old-man-work sock ones are from 'Patons Kroy Socks' 50g/152m - what the? much heavier! These I knit at T7./9. because the yarn is even visually quite a bit thicker than the other sock yarns and gosh, didn't they turn out to be my exact size! ;-)
BTW, I save the ball labels and make notes on the back - what size, any changes, etc so I know for the next time.
I have another admission to make...the toe of the sock - a while back ('new way to graft...' Dec 05/09), I confessed that my eyesight/hand co-ordination was causing trouble for me for grafting the toe and I figured out how to graft it on the machine - much better, no dropped or missed stitches - well, now I've decided who cares about a row of purls at the toe? At the end of the sock, I transfer all stitches up and do that grafting stitch by hand - saves taking it off on waste, turning it inside out and rehanging - works for me!
PS - My circular sock pattern is on my website (www.knitwords.com) under FREEBIES – as a free pdf – I call them ‘Warmup Socks’ because I used to make a pair as a warm-up for me on the ribber before tackling a ribber project if I hadn’t done any double bed stuff for a while!
PPS - If you put ‘socks’ into the SEARCH at the top of my blog page, it will bring up a lot of these references, plus others! Just for fun, I put ‘warm’ into the SEARCH – it was entertaining!!