I had big photoshoot plans for these socks, but I just couldn’t get good pictures of them and my local beach together. So, boring back porch photo shoot it is!

Pattern: The amazing Nona’s Sidewinders
Yarn:Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock, lightweight, Pebble Beach colorway
Time Elapsed: About a week. Maybe a little less–these were hard to put down!
Modifications/Notes: The only modification I made was to add two sets of short rows to accommodate my ginormous calves. This was extremely easy to do. One of the biggest things I love about this pattern is that it’s very very clever, but also very understandable. The way they’re constructed just makes sense.

Start with a provisional cast-on, decrease for the heel, increase for the toe, decrease for the toe, increase for the heel, graft. Super-easy and hella fun.
The other thing I love about this pattern is what it does for pooly sock yarn. It doesn’t entirely stop the yarn from pooling, but somehow minor pooling looks better to me when it happens in a vertical stripe along the foot. And that’s a good thing, because the pooling was so bad I was starting to despair of wearing this very special yarn.

I bought the yarn while pregnant with Jacob, shortly after I visited the Monterey area for the first time, to console myself since we would never be able to live near Pebble Beach. (Jon had gotten some feelers about an academic position here, so we decided to check it out on our vacation.) After Jacob was born, we all realized just how much we wanted me to stay home with our kids, and we re-investigated that academic job offer. Turns out that it was feasible after all, and here we are in Pebble Beach! Life is funny, sometimes.
Now that we’ve lived here for a year, of course, we’re dying to get out–the fog bank is just too depressing. Hopefully soon we’ll be moving to a sunnier part of Monterey. And now, through this move and any others we make in the future, I’ll have some fantastic socks to remind me of our time here.

If Jacob ever gives them back, that is.
(You bet your bottom dollar I did a FO page–Check it out!)