Keith's Christmas Socks

I relented. Hubby's size 12 clodhoppers now have a new pair of handmade socks. These are the "Spey Valley" pattern from "Knitting on the Road." The yarn is handspun Cotswold, which I spun up when I was making friends with my Country Craftsman this past Fall. It's a 2-ply yarn, but if you look closely at the pic, you can see how...ahem...energized the yarn is. That's my polite way of saying I overzealously spun and plied the hell out of it, so it has a rather incredible amount of "sproing" and bias. I really feared they would feel like Brillo on hubby's feet, but he says no, and he loves the bouncy feel of the finished socks.
Here's a close-up of the cuff.
This was a really nice pattern, easily memorized, but not so easy as to be boring. The yarn, though gray, was not dull, being as many myriad and subtle shades of gray as it was. I have a ton of this roving, too, so there may be more socks in his future. And to entertain myself as I knit, perhaps I will dunk the finished skeins in a dye kettle before knitting the next time I undertake a project like this. I'm thinking the gray would do a lovely job of toning Jacquard's Sapphire Blue down to a more sedate shade of blue he'd be willing to wear...

I could also spin some of this for Larry and throw it in a vat of Kelly Green. But could I finish them in time for St. Paddy's Day and the wearin' o' the green? Hmmmm...I feel a new challenge coming on...