Fa La La

Today my earworm is the medieval Christmas carol, Gaudete [gow-day-tay, Latin for rejoice].

Or view here.
Gaudete Sunday may have been last week, but I'm happy now because my Gaudete socks – Stephanie van der Linden's Advent calendar mystery knit-along pattern – are finished... before the end of Advent and the end of the KAL! They're beauteous (if I do say so myself), comfortable, and I learned some new-to-me techniques. I suppose it had to happen sometime: it was the perfect mystery KAL. Thank you, Steffi!



The socks were a great pleasure to knit. I love their fiddly round cast on and their shapely combination of vertical and bias ribbing...



... and their godet heels and their arch shaping on the sole of the foot. I also love how the changing stitch counts make the lovely Forbidden Woolery yarn shift between pooling and not.

   

Gaudete is an excellent fit on my Frankenfeet. I did tweak the pattern a bit: although there's a generous size range, from XS to L, I knit the equivalent of an XXS for a better fit. I also wanted a tallish sock, so to accommodate bicyclist's legs, I cast on with US 2s and worked an extra repeat, then changed to US 1s and knit as written, adjusting for the reduced stitch count at the heel turn and toe.



So I have shapely new socks for French toast weather. And even if today's blizzard warning was downgraded, motorists in NJ should be aware of a new law that requires clearing snow and ice off an automobile before driving it. Fa la la.