A sock washing line

A few weeks ago I read about an appeal for socks for a sock washing line at Yarndale, which sounds like a fantastic idea. For the weekend of Yarndale, the socks will be creating a lovely colourful display, but after that they're going to be donated to charitys that distribute socks to people that need

them. So when I went away for a weekend a couple of weeks ago, I picked up some self-striping sock yarn and the appropriate needles and set to knitting a pair of socks.

For ease of measuring I went for making socks that fit me, even if not everyone with UK size 10 feet will want brightly coloured rainbow socks (I have huge feet, finding nice socks in shops is hard!), and used a pattern I'd used before (Lifestyle socks - toe up, no swatch needed) so I didn't have to pay too much attention. Usually I knit socks two at a time, but I didn't have time to rewind the yarn, so went for knitting them one at a time instead to avoiding reversing the stripe sequence between socks.

I cast on at the start of a long, trafficy car journey to Wells Next The Sea, and had to got to the heel but the time we'd got back to our cottage at the end of the day. I used a combination of k2tog, kfb and p2tog, pfb for the heel short rows, and they worked, but have left little holes, so I'll rethink that technique for the next pair I knit. But otherwise these socks went perfectly. It was easy to make both socks the same length too as all I had to do was match up the stripes.

I love the finished socks. They're DK weight so are cosy, and they're so bright and cheerful. Now all I need to do is label them and put them in the post. I hope whoever eventually receives them loves them as much as I do.