Spring Thaw Socks

I am shocked, shocked, I tell you, to find out that there is gambling going on here I neglected to post any pictures of my Spring Thaw Socks.

This was one of those patterns that I knew I had to knit as soon as I saw the pattern. And I wanted to make an awesome gift for my friend Barb, who gave up a week of her life to come over every day and nurse me through recuperation from my ACL reconstruction (last May - ahem).

The pattern is from the Summer '08 Knitter's magazine, and you can see their pictures of it here. It is supposed to resemble leaves floating down the little rivulets that form in the spring thaw, or some such. I just thought it was beautiful.

Here's mine in progress:



You can also see my much-loved and much-used bead row counter. I think I need to make some more of these, for myself and as gifts.

Somehow I gave these away without taking any pictures of the finished socks themselves (how can this be???), but here are two of the almost-done sock:





ETA: I had to go back to Ravelry to look up the yarn, which luckily I had posted there. It is Lana Grossa Meilenweit, which comes in 100g skeins.

I think this is a beautiful, beautiful pattern, and I love the construction with the ribbing on the sides of the foot. I have actually made two more pairs sort of based on the construction (but without the fancy leaves and with 2x2 ribbing instead of 1x1 TBL ribbing), and they are the best-fitting socks I have, bar none. I'll post them -- but first I have to take pictures of them. (I may have to launder them first -- I wear them all the time.)

And Barb seemed quite delighted when I was finally able to give her these last month. I finished them way before that, but somehow we were never able to catch up with each other until December. Yes, I know I could have mailed them, but I selfishly wanted the pleasure of seeing her receive them.

And we were finally able to return her ice-cube machine, which was quite handy during the recuperation.

Thank you, Barb! Love ya!