Love them, great colourway, and nicely fraternal.

Wow, a sock in an afternoon, that is something. I can't even begin to imagine I could duplicate that.

Oh my- these socks are wonderful! I can't believe that I'm number 2 comment. Life is good. It has cooled down in Portland for you- we've only had one week of hot weather and I'm already glad for the respite. I hope everything goes well with Sock Summit planning. I'm just down the road from Cornelius Roadhouse, so give a shout and I'm there to help (and to share a beer!)

Oh,don't vex the knitting fates that way! They have very good memories and will come back to haunt you on December 23 with a knitting black hole!! Gorgeous socks though-I seem to like them more when they are not even close to identical!

It's like lawyers billing more time when they fly from the East Coast to the West: a 27 hour day.

congratulations on warping the space/time continuum. i love that colorway.

Well, the good thing is that those socks are SO fraternal nobody will think you were accidentally just a little bit off.

who knew, shared points of a family resemblance is so much more attractive than photocopies. i love them.

btw, having the same feeling, but with reading a dense article: the first time 'round, it took forEVER though I concentrated and tried to skim, but today afternoon, even with highlighting and commenting and looking for the first printout, it's already done. wish every day were this painless.

*Doctor Who nerd rasies her hand* The only thing wrong with that theroy is that you can't go back in personal timelines. But other than that I'd totally go with it ("Wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey,"). Anyway they are very cute. Good fall colors.

That is wicked fast. Stitches per minute? or would that be too much math?

Yeah, I might even describe those socks as half-siblings. I couldn't take it, they would drive me batty! I would have frogged the second before I got to the heel, I suspect... And what are those needles? Are they Blackthorn DPNs? I got some recently, but haven't used them yet. (Just held them while making that "oooo" noise that the squeaky aliens in Toy Story make...)

If you ever figure out how to do that time/space continuum thing again, please let me know! I have a skein of Zauberball--I'm thinking of using it w/a solid in fair isle to try and make it matchy matchy. Yours came out almost opposite-I think they're cute. Maybe you should make another pair and then swap them around!

You went for a ride in the TARDIS and actually came back?! They'd have had to pry me out of there with a crowbar! ;-)

That yarn is GORGEOUS. I love it!

Sorry. Does not compute. Unless it's chunky yarn on big needles, I can't compute a sock in an afternoon. You must be mistaken. It can't be done. Cool socks that you didn't make, however.

I always say that these socks were clearly made for each other. I'm making a pair from Zauerball right now and they will not be identical. Heck, I have trouble making the row count the same from one sock to the next.

It is funny, after all the years of reading your blog, I KNEW those fraternal socks were bugging you!! But they are quite lovely:)

WOW, great job! Maybe you're just emulating your Nan and knitting like you have to make money by it. Wicked fast.

Also, love the yarn. Zauberball is NUTS, and it drives me bonkers, but so pretty to look at.

Congratulations on the sock! I adore socks that are fraternal like those. I call them cousin socks since they look more distantly-related than siblings.

Dr. Who is playing with your head for sure Stephanie! They may be fraternal but they look adopted - or have different fathers (assuming that they spawned from something other than a human)! Sorry to say that there is no way I could tolerate those socks. They would have been ripped out and the yarn used for some other type of apparel if they would never look truly related.

Looks like a day lost to me!

I agree.... the colors are lovely and each sock is beautiful, but I'd have preferred more similarity. I can't help it..... I like more family resemblance in my socks!

Nice work! Congratulations on the sock-of-an-afternoon. But I thought that you preferred the heel flap heel?

You gained back all that time lost when knitting shawls for 2 days and not making them any bigger.

Good to know about the Zauberball. I think that fraternalness might bug me but am now tempted to knit up the one I got at Sock Summit last year.

Dear Yarn Harlot:

Would you please stop flaunting the fact that you are able to knit an entire pair of socks in less than two days?

You are making the rest of us look bad.

Perhaps I need to find a job where I get to travel ginormous amounts of miles instead of sitting in a classroom teaching young, bright minds how to do English and grammar and such.

Mind you, I love my job...especially since I waited for forever and a day to get it.

Still...

My knitting is suffering.

I thought I was okay with that.

Until I read your blog today.

Thanks a lot.

Love,

A faithful reader who still loves you and admires you and will totally let your daughter date my son if only to get a tad of that knitting speed instantly woven into the family tree.

P.S. I'm not a stalker. I promise. I'm just green with envy.

:)

Sock in an afternoon? No biggie, I do it all the time. Newborn socks.

Do you teach how to knit fast like you? If you have videos out or a class to take (that I could get to) I am definitely interested. I just recently switched from throwing to picking, and even though I'm faster now, there is no way I could make a sock in an afternoon. or two. or probably three.

Yup, those twins are fraternal all right. Are you sure they even have the same father?

Don't ever knock a finished object or how it was achieved...just saying the scale can tip back the opposite way in a blink!

But do a happy dance for finishing!

I love that your total commitment to knitting causes you to be promiscuous with your projects ;)

Like Austin Val at 5:08 implied, your day was an extra 2 or 3 hours long because of the time change to the West Coast. But, like many others, I am impressed. Lovely socks, thanks for the inspiration for altering the basic recipe. And GO SOCK SUMMIT II!!

Truly you were blessed by the knitting goddess. Socks in one day, yee-haw! Cat Bordhi says socks don't need to match, and I agree. Embrace your inner crazy, end enjoy them!

When I looked at those socks I wondered...Mrs. Harlot knit those? And they are so very Fraternal????

when is this "phenomenon" going to happen to me?

What's funny is that I looked at the finished socks and though "Neat...but I bet that the fact that they are not at least similar matches is making Stephanie nuts" and then I read your last sentence! LOL! Sorry...

That second sock looks more stripey to me. And as everyone knows, stripes go faster. Or else I'd go with the Dr. Who theory.

Very very cool socks and very very cool on the time thing (how did you DO that?!) I do love me some seriously fraternal socks--and the memory of the perplexed well-dressed woman getting into her Mercedes once who stopped and demanded in outrage that I know that my (fraternal) socks didn't match!

Yeah, isn't that cool?

That flustered her even more. I enjoyed that way too much, especially after she wanted to know where to buy a pair like that, since by my enjoyment of that moment I'd clearly made them the Next Cool Thing.

Sometimes when my mind is going a mile a minute my hands can go just as fast, especially with an easy pattern that can be done by rote. It is actually therapeutic to be able to think and knit simultaneously this way, isn't it?

As soon as I saw those "fraternal" socks I thought, no way did the Harlot make those! She's so careful about making socks match! Seriously, these are keepers? For you? (I love them.)
So what's up with the dark-to-light handspun? Did you dye? What color? I'm on pins and (double-point) needles...

Okay so I better not talk about the second sock I finished today (Sunday Swing from Knitty) because erm, I started the pair in January this year. I think. I forget.

Life (and other little people's knitted item needs) gets in the way of knitting for myself.

You love matching things. Will you really keep those socks? (Totally awesome job by the way.)

I love your fraternal socks! :)

Wow, that is amazingly fast! I am making my son some socks using just about the same 'pattern' except mine is the purl 2 in the center, and extending one purl on each side. They actually seem faster to knit than plain socks.

My first thought was, "Jeez, how fast does this woman knit?!"

If you can alter the laws of the universe, more power to you, but I'm guessing your knitting speed is just pretty darn fast. Way to go!

Love the socks! Zauberball is awesome stuff. I've been hoarding a ball waiting for just the right time to start a pair of socks with it. Have a great trip!

I was thinking the same thing as Violet and Glenda up there.:) But you know, the fraternal socks look very fine peeking out from under your pant legs. They're pretty, if not matchy. :)

My Crazy Zauberball socks (three pairs so far) have all ended up going far faster than those in other yarns; I chalk it to a addictive eagerness to see how the next random colour combo on the ball looks when it's knitted (I love the nonboring unpredictability of the stuff)

Love those wildly fraternal socks!

And isn't it lucky you'll be with Tina so you can liberate more yarn for the trip back.

Gorgeous! I loves me some fraternal socks, but those are extreme!

I have to say, when I fly I can complete more of a sock in one day than at any other time. You can't go anywhere, and you can't really do anything, so you just keep knitting, and knitting, and knitting. I'm still not that fast though!

Congrats on warping the space time continuum, I wish this phenomenon would happen to me! I can't even knit a sock in 2 days!!! Love the yarn!

LOVE the colors in your new socks!

ummmm, yeah...
They don't match.
At all.
Are you sure you used the same ball of yarn?
Cause, I mean...like....
they REALLY don't match...
*CLUNK*<-------------(falls over in disbelief that you would make socks that are not only not identical, they aren't even in the same time zone!)

Love the socks. Love the colors. When are you going to knit the mates to them? LOL!

Welcome to Portland! You have a perfect day - earlier this week it was TOO HOT.

My daughter never wears socks that match, never ever. It would be funny to give her a pair like this. Would she consider it cheating to wear them together?

Those Daleks screw up everything (lol)....

No, it's just that you're awesome. A sock in an afternoon? In my dreams.

Well - I tell everyone that you are the Zen Master of Knitting - you must have been channeling the tick of the universe to favor your interests. And stay away from those Daleks, as KathyR. said they'll mess up everything. Even the talents of the Zen Master. Great socks btw!

I'm pretty sure it was the yarn that did it. After all, it came out of a "Zauber" ball, and Zauber is German for magic!

I completely understand the fraternal socks driving you nuts. Still, you are an amazing knitter.

I'm reminded of the time you took about 2 days to get the first 10 rows of a lace shawl. These socks are the Universal Balance to that. If they're not, congrats on the whole space time continuum thing.

very pretty :) The Patons Kroy FX sock yarn does the same thing... to the point the base dye lots in each of the colors don't match even if the ball bands SAY they're the same dye lot... and an e-mail back from the company can be boiled down to a "tough, deal with it."

I think it was Sock Summit that brought the magic. Last year, since I couldn't go, I decided to cast on some socks when registration opened and finish them by the time the closing ceremonies were done. Couldn't believe I actually did it--and shockingly, I actually made three socks because the first one was too big.

Fraternal or identical--don't worry! #2 is The Sock that was Knit in an Afternoon!
(And here I was all excited by knitting 2 pairs in 5 weeks...new goal, now.)

You know, Steph, it's really far more entertaining to watch you drive yourself increasingly insane trying to make the socks match.

mmm...socks in the afternoon. Delightful!

A sock in an afternoon? The mind whirls! I knit a slipper in about the same amount of time (double-stranded worsted on US 11 needles, mind you) and feel pretty darned good about it, lol. Got to pick up some of that Zauberball, though...my niece is crazy about vaguely-related socks.

fraternal, perhaps. totally cool, definitely!

I LOVE fraternal socks.

Time warp to be sure!
Socks take years.
I have proof.

Wear them proudly! They're beautiful!

I want to be you just for a week. Well, at least the knitting part of you.

The socks were so excited at the possibility of roaming around the Convention Center in anticipation of SS11 that S2 fully cooperated.

I am so PROUD of you for letting go and letting the yarn give you the sock you were supposed to have! After three daughters you should be better at embracing and accepting the individual!

I think they are lovely. I've always thought that identical socks are highly overrated. They look like something a computer would make. THESE socks -- well, they look like they were made by a Harlot!

I'm making a pair from Zauberball 6 ply also, and it is quite disturbing how unalike they are and also how much leftover yarn there's going to be. A ball of yarn in which the color sequence NEVER repeats. Very strange.

Well, that's great. Your first sock completed at such speed and the first time you wear them you know SOMEBODY is going to tell you your socks don't match! LOL.

Just be careful........ I have managed a sock in a day, even a pair in a couple of days several times - only to have to frog half a sweater sometime later in the week. Be careful of the nasty knitting demons who lurk in the shadows of the knitting goddess.

Great looking socks!

Oh my! I thought I was doing good to get a pair of socks in three days. Are you sure you weren't transported by aliens for a period of time and then brought back to our present?

I know you knit way faster than I do: I can tell just by looking at all the wonderful things you finish. I congratulate you for perservering and not ripping them out. I know I would have had some serious reservations: my socks have to match as closely as possible.

Short row heels? On *your* plain vanilla socks? I'm disoriented....there must be an explanation?!
;-)

also, I predict that if you have another ball of Zauberball (that sounds redundant), that perhaps it won't become socks. I can't see you opening yourself up to that degree of unrelatedness willingly again.

Those socks are beyond awesome! I totally love them. Love that they are fraternal, because I think socks that have to be identical is the sign of a disturbed mind. I totally love the side rib, which I will use on my next pair. You inspired me to knit socks more intently by your Sock of the Month Club. My older socks were wearing out, I have lots of sock yarn, something needed to happen. I've made myself 2 pair and a pair for mom.

Looking froward to Sock Summit 2011!

I can't knit nor wear fraternal socks. Just can't. The knitting circle calls me a____ retentive but I can't help it. Even if the colors are pretty like yours! Hope you enjoy yours. And I'll never be able to knit a sock in an afternoon either. I have a lot to work out. sigh

Oh, wow. I have some Zauberball in my stash....

Another yarn that's good for fraternal (and really nice) socks is Paton's Kroy FX. The balls are, IMO, a little smaller than they should be, but it's nice yarn. (I knit six crew socks from one dye lot of 'Clover', and there are no color repeats in the lot.)

Very cool!

I'm doing some fraternal socks (2 @ a time from same ball). And they are going pretty fast (for me).

My theory: it's the change in colours that keep you going. How long is this colour? Look, it changed! How long this colour? All the time knitting to see what's coming next.

I've done the time warp continuum once. It only worked for about 15 minutes. It's the only explanation for arriving on time. And it is a Zen thing. I've never been able to do it again.

So I think it's the theory about wanting to see what colour is up next. And with Zauberball, the colour change is amazing. What better thing to keep you knitting and fast.

oh sure and I just had to put my lace in a time out because I screwed up on the very first patterned row. and i'm almost done with the socks i started in june. go ahead, flaunt it.

Have you every had your knitting confiscated at security? What do they do with it?

I used to knit whenever I flew, but now I'm too afraid of the answer to that question to pack any in my carry on bag.

wow! those are some fraternal socks!

Also, I say go with the Doctor. Hopefully it's Tennant or Eccleston. :) I wouldn't mind losing a couple of hours with either one haha

The knitting goddess does not give this to you for Christmas for two reasons.
First you would be so busy and stressed you would hardly notice.
Second she is a motherly figure. She is trying to teach you to get yourself out of the knitting mess you put yourself in!

But my money is on Doctor Who. If you see him agian send him my way! Rwarr ;)

I firmly believe that Doctor Who is himself an avid, albeit uncharacteristically-for-him modest, knitter.

Madame Nostradumus -- whom he once described as "a witty little knitter" -- taught him, I think.

I see no reason that the Doctor couldn't have simply moved your sock-in-progress outside of the time-space continuum and done some of the knitting for you, Stephanie, as he seems a kind and helpful sort of person, don't you think? 8^)

(Those *are* the colors of the stripes in the original scarf that I recall on the actor Tom Baker, by the way.)

That fraternal-ness is why I keep shying away from acquiring a Zauberball, even though they look so pretty in the store. Maybe the solution is to just knit several pairs of socks from the same dyelot of Zauberball and then match whichever come the closest to each other?

I think G. Knerd is on to something, there...several pairs from the same dye lot of Zauerball. At the rate you're going, you'd be bound to have a matching pair within a week -- 10 days, tops.

PS: Maybe this shift in the space-time continuum is the universe's way of trying to get you to stick around in Vancouver?

These are absolutely the most amazing things i've seen, the colorway is awesome... and i always love when something speeds by and you find yourself done with something so quickly. its like a little knitting fairy helped out a little!

I call that "invisible knitting". I'm concentrating on something else, and then I look down and my lap and WOW, look at what I did while not paying attention to it! Seriously, a great phenomenon. Pretty, pretty socks!

Sorry, I must have hit my button more than once!

Dang. You were flyin' in more ways than one. Are you sure you weren't in the vehicle in "Contact"?

When my stripes don't match, it turns my mind into a more chaotic state of A.D.D. than usual. I am a lazy, messy, inconsistent slop and my chosen OCD is striped socks that match. AND it stresses me out when it appears they won't match.

Perhaps I should try my next pair and let whimsy and fate determine my stripes. Hither-Tither. I'll either get more gray hairs, or who knows - maybe it's the therapeutic breakthrough I've been waiting for.

Its the other end of the black hole of knitting, and I LOVE those fraternal socks! Mine all look like that.

And if the unrelatedness of the socks bugs you hard enough, I imagine one of your daughters would be happy to take them off your hands - even right off your feet!

I quite like fraternal socks and those ones are very pretty.

I was surprised by an unusual reaction to your very quick socks: It made me think that if this were to ever happen to me, I'd quit knitting.

I don't know why. I'll have to chew on this for awhile.

(Oops, this was not a comment on the fraternalness. I don't mind fraternal socks.)

Nice colourway! And I emphatically like fraternal socks, not 'slightly off' but fraternal in the 'different gender' class. To me those are the 'handknittest' of all handknit socks (well, those and on the same level of 'handknitness' are the custom fit ones).
And, yes, that's FAST.

When I saw your pic I knew the fraternal thing would make you three types of crazy. I so have the same identical twin need in my handknit socks - even if I know the sock recipient so won't give a flip.

Those aren't fraternal socks, more like cousins. Studying them, it doesn't look as if there is one pattern repeat in the entire ball. I can and do accept a little fraternity in the hand-knit sock department but that's a bit extreme. (Seriously, yarn manufacturers, why do you do this? No matter the quality of the knitting, it looks aweful.)

Personally, I try to make my "twins" as near identical as possible. I prefer them that way.

- Pam (been known to partially knit the second sock and when I get to the point I can match to the first, cut the yarn and start again from there.)

Ha, I now have the image of you running around having adventures (screaming etc) with the Doctor and still carrying on with the knitting.

There's a group on Ravelry doing a 52 Pair Plunge - knit 52 pairs of socks in a year. I'm doing the mini plunge, which is 26 pairs and vaguely achievable, but there's a small group of very very crazy people doing a double plunge, and aiming to knit 104 pairs of socks in a year, two pairs every week.

Maybe you could join them?

I love the socks!! Great yarn! I think that you've knitted your plain Vanilla socks so many times that your hands just automatically know what to do. Now if your hands could just teach my hands that neat little trick, I could actually get more socks finished LOL! I do really well until I get to the heel, where I need peace and quiet so I can concentrate and count. Seeing as how my house is not usually peaceful and quiet, my socks seldom get finished. Maybe I should try to hang out with the Doctor more. The Tardis is pretty quiet most of the time, except when it's landing of course!

Um,I hate to disparage the socks' mommy, but I am not sure they are full siblings? I think that Mom was stepping out on Dad at the time of conception, so they are really only half siblings. Maybe there needs to be a DNA test.

I don't mind fraternal socks, but these may be too different for even me. Maybe if I saw them in person. . . on my own feet.

Signed, a lawyer who has obviously been handling too many paternity cases lately.

The socks look great but if the "fraternal" match bothers you so much you should try the new flying saucers that were mentioned in the Lettuce Knit newsletter! I am dying to see if it actually works out perfect! :)

I wish I could knit socks, i am not even through my first pair which I started in January - on the heel flap of the second sock - I am using the plain pattern from your book.

I read the whole post wondering with how you had coped with the socks looking so different. That's amazing personal growth. I'm proud of you.

I too had a project such as this: icarus shawl from interweave knits, where each row gets longer. I managed 2 rows between Wigan & London (2 hours) - admittedly with some error correction required - but then did 6 on the local train journey from Waterloo to Hounslow. Handy tip for any London knitters - the local line has a time warp on it!!

Uninterrupted (even semi-uninterupted) knitting time is a beautiful thing.....
I totally love this colorway... crazy as it is!

Of course, you were flying west, thereby gaining a few extra hours in the day. You were also traveling, with the attendant amount of sitting and thumb twiddling, except when you twiddle you're holding yarn and needles and actually DOING something. You were not being interrupted at inopertune moments by people and pets and laundry and "real life."
I wish I could fly more often! (And don't forget that the day flying back to Toronto, while seeming longer than a real day, will actually be a few hours less than twenty-four. Maybe another plain vanilla sock for that trip?

You know... I'd be glad to get a sock in six months. I have serious sock apathy right now. LOL

Plain vanilla...good

I JUST started sock 1 with a ball of that Zauerball sock yarn... so far I am just starting knitting around the foot (toe up) so have only seen one color, but I am really excited about where it's taking me! Wow! You sure got some great colors in yours! and I'll be lucky if I finish this pair before Christmas!

Great socks! Can I ask you, what brand of needles are you working with? From the pick, they look really nice...and I have yet to find a brand of dpns that I really like.

Gotta love long flights! I think there's a substantial extra speed gain from the lack of interruptions. And pretty, though I think the unfraternality of them would probably bug me too.

@ P J Evans- I totally agree on the Patons FX-- nice yarn, but not enough per ball. I make socks toe up and then knit until I run out, and they only come to a little above the ankle (I'm a US size 10). But I refuse to buy a third ball, just to get another two inches of length in the leg!

OTOH, Stephanie has small feet, so she'd get a longer sock. A lot of people wouldn't have a problem at all.

You know - I almost bought a ball of that very same yarn this past weekend - in a green/brown colorway. I love your socks - individually - but like you, I think the difference is so great that they would drive me nuts. For a moment there I was thinking "Wow, that was a close one. Whew - glad I didn't get that yarn!" and then, THEN it occured to me what a FABULOUS scarf it would make! Hmmmmmmmm - may have to head back to the shop this afternoon after work and reconsider.

A sock in a day? No problem - just keep flying west.

Totally agree on the "fraternal rather than identical" Socks are supposed to match. =)

I love the fraternal socks! I have two pair of earrings just like that - actually 4 with lost siblings that I just mix and don't match - no one ever notices. Awesome socks! So unlike you, though. Not the knitting, the non-matching part.

I am simply amazed, but have to ask how one avoids getting cramps in your "back side" with all that sitting and knitting?

I've always held the belief that, when you're up in the air flying over all those time zones, screwy things could happen with personal time vs. the time the planet feels is passing. Any time I see hours pass, and then have to reset my watch, is ripe for accidental space-time continuum warping.

That much faternity would be seriously bothersom to me too.
But a sock in an afternoon??? Here, that would be a dream. A beautiful dream but one that will never come true I am sure!

Steph, I wondered how you would handle the fraternalness of Zuaberball. May I make a suggestion? Find yourself a Flying Saucer from SchoppelWolle. Guaranteed identical socks. (I have some in my shop if you can't find it anywhere else!)

You are now officially my hero! Combining knitting socks with a Dr Who reference :-)
Love the socks by the way, who cares that they are not identical!

Well, duh ,you are going to plan the second sock summit after all any two women that rent a convention center,plan a boatload of fun for thousands,the sock magic dust is on you! Welcome back to Oregon we love you here.:)

If you're a matchy-matchy person, this isn't the yarn for you. I completed a project that required two balls and discovered colors in each that weren't in the other. Fun, though. (I have to admit that the colorway was quite colorful, so it really didn't matter that much.)

Is this anything like me knitting a thong in a day?

Yeah, fraternal, but the heels kind of match.

Wow. A scarf knit on the bias, or fun mittens, but socks where there isn't even a color in common? If I wore them as bed socks they'd keep me up! Hey, that't the ticket... when you need to stay up crazy late to finish a project, just pop on your "special" socks. What genius!!

Thank the heavens, you have given me hope.

My next move: Touch hands to cheeks (the FACE ones) then open palms and raise arms in glory while swinging them around my head like a crazy person, chanting: Praise be to The Yarn Harlot! Note: If I do this in a U.S. southern accent, it will probably work even better.

Okay, Stephanie . . . this post came at just the right time.

For the last stinkin' week I've spent more time knitting backwards than forwards. I don't know why, but when I turn a heel, my brain fights me every step of the way.

I mean, for Pete's sake, It's not all THAT darn difficult. All it takes is a little concentration . . . but there's a sock devil out there, lurking, smirking and testing my will.

But thanks to you, I now have all good faith that I'll eventually be able to knit a pair of socks in a month (forget the day thing for now) -- and that I'll knit them forwards, not backwards.

Hallelujah. Amen.

I am enchanted. I adore fraternal socks beyond all reason.

"ironically when I care least"

That alone may be the key to the amazing accomplishment.

I guess I am just weird but holy smoly my socks have got to match. I'd be tempted to get another ball of that yarn and knit two more socks and try and match them up. Or not, whatever turns your crank is ok. Great work.

Socks that fraternal are too hard for me to handle; I need my socks to look as though they might actually have had the same parents, as opposed to half- or step- siblings.

What's with all the OCD quibbles? Those are gorgeous socks, no disclaimers or qualifiers.

(In high school my eldest daughter decided mismatched socks were cool, and her six-years-younger sister of course took that as gospel. By the time she woke up, years later, she was old enough to pair her own laundry. Obvious the fastidious factor is low chez nous.)

I'm glad you said that thing at the end. Reading the post all I could think about was how the socks did not match and I was not sure how you were dealing with that.

Wish I knit socks that fast. A hat maybe, but I just don't have that sock mojo. I'm guessing that you have another project in your suitcase, because I'm wondering what's going to be on your needles next. Or, maybe it's a good reason to go buy some more sock yarn?

"fraternal rather than identical. Seriously made me nuts."

hehe! i was waiting for that kind of statement from you when i saw the socks!

I noticed they weren't matchy-matchy, with I know you like to do. Guess they'll be gifted, as I cannot imagine you wearing socks that are not a perfect match (nor allowing anyone in your family to do the same.) They'll be a beautiful gift for someone!

I was going to mention to the lady on your previous blog that your basic sock instructions in KNITTING RULES were what I used the first time, and they turned out great. You do a really nice job of talking the novice through all those confusing steps like "turning the heel" etc. Thank you!

I suspect they are not for you as they have a short row heel. You have high insteps. Short row heals are low.

Very nice socks. Love that the time/space continuum does even things out once in a while. Gives this girl hopes!

What I wrote several months ago on my blog about this yarn:The OCD part of me had a problem with the Crazy yarn.  Even after buying a second ball of yarn I could not find a starting point to create two matching socks.  Instead, I must liberate myself and learn to love the differences in all things-even socks.

But I liked the colors so much I bought the black/grey version.

And a vanilla sock in a day is doable, but not recomended for usual knitting. Just in time for Fall.
Jean

Good for you! But in keeping with some kind of knitting karma, I frogged about two weeks worth of knitting, deciding to go with a bigger needle on a bottom-up dress. Aargh! Got to remember that it's the process as well as the product that I love. (And I did finish a couple of small shawls in the same time.)

Truly fraternal socks, those!

I like fraternal socks (rather than identical). It confuses my husband when he's folding clothes. Yeh, he actually does that. Weird, I know.

Very fraternal! I actually thought you were going to say at the end there that you took the wrong yarn!! I love fraternals, but that is way beyond what I can deal with. :D I'm going to guess someone else is getting them, right?? :)

Good for you for completing the project. I bet you were twitching the whole time??

Yet more incentive to knit faster and go out to eat less so my yarn diet can end sooner...

Thank for the nuts comment at the end. Just looking at the color patterning, as lovely as the knitting is, was driving me nuts! That's it --time and frateral patterns just go faster. It would be wise to not look that gift-horse in the mouth too long, for more reason than one.

If you knew the Knitting Cosmos was going to balance things, would you really want to spend that on a single sock? I know I have other projects I'd fling a few extra hours at.

Dude, they're socks. The feet will be inside shoes. The legs will be covered by pants/trousers/jeans. Only about two inches max will be visible at any given time during daily wear. So who cares if they're different? Is different bad? No! Different can be beautiful! Embrace the different socks!

Funny how so many of us were thinking, "fraternal drives her crazy". I think we have to examine how we spend our time. =0)

Good Lord love us and help us to be brave!!!! The mind boggles. It makes me want to give up sock knitting forever. The bar is not just high, it's out of sight. Enjoy your fraternal socks.

Fraternal socks freak me out. I made a pair lovingly so for my husband and fretted about the fact that there was no way I could ever make them match. They are so soft and fit him perfectly. He loves them and I rationalize that his pants will cover the "fraternalness". Bless you for modeling yours so proudly!! I will never look at fraternal socks the same way.

i think they are wonderful socks. the differences are really neat, can't wait to start a pr like them.

I haven't read all the comments, and so maybe somebody already pointed this out, and maybe this is just me, but you did warp time - you crossed three time zones, and gained 3 hours by traveling to Portland.

P.S., try Really Embracing fraternal, and using different patterns (but same yarn) for two socks. It's kind of fun to see if anybody (except knitters) will notice.

The "fraternal-ness" of those is making me grit my teeth. I can't for the life of me figure out where you could have started the second sock to get an even remotely matchy-matchy pair. Is that part of Zauberball's charm?

I think I just need to embrace my Inner Symmetrical self. Beautifully knitted, as all your projects, but those would send me 'round the bend.

What you going to knit on the way home?

beautiful socks, as per usual, been looking intently and No, I can't see how you could have made them match.
Sorry you are not feeling well, 2 vitamin C tablets 3 times a day and plenty of fluids, blackcurrant juice is good. Most people don't know BUT the original quote was "Feed a cold, and (you will) starve a fever"
Hope better soon,really need to be fighting fit just now.

What a pair of socks! I love 'em.

re: Fraternal socks -- In our house, wool socks are precious. So if one gets a hole that is bad enough to throw it out, we do not also throw out the mate. So we have several single wool socks (both store bought and home made) which serve as fraternal twins.

I usually try to make sure I have a pair on before actually going out, but the kids don't bother if they're going skiing, as any warm sock in the cold is a good thing.

Now I'm off to watch Firefly and figure out how i could POSSIBLY be knitting trinity stitch in this stupid sweater on the WRONG SIDE.

Seriously, you were way nuts before the yarn...smiling, always, but nuts. (note...it would drive me nuts too, but I did not get sock done in an afternoon.

Ok, I am delurking to comment on the concept of working on more than one project at once.

I have been a hard-core reader for far more years than I have been a knitter. I used to try to explain to people why (and HOW) I read six or seven books a a time: by having that much on the go, I always have a book that suits my mood... sometimes I can flit between three totally different books in a single day.

Everybody thinks I'm a bloody lunatic weirdo.

Meh, whatever, I'm HAPPY.

So, if I can't make them understand my reading, which is, after all, a "normal" activity, I know there is no way in hell I will ever be able to make anyone (read: my husband) understand why I need to buy a fourth pair of 4mm needles... because, of course, the other three sets all have different projects on them.

C'est la vie!

Mystifying. Gorgeous socks - would drive me srsly nuts though.

Thanks for showing me my greatest fear of knitting with the Zauberball. They are just TOO different for me. Distant cousins I would call them.

Steph is an enabler, once again! Just ordered my Zauberball Starke. Love those mismatched socks.
LOL

I get the fraternal thing. I did the same last year as a pair of mitts for myself in Noro. What made it even weirder, was that one mitt didn't quite use up a whole ball (and the way the colours are loaded into the balls is sort of random) so there were colours in each mitt that never made it into the mate. Very hard to convince non knitters that they were a pair!

Sheep at the Sock Summit? Could you also manage some alpacas? I discovered over the weekend that alpacas hum. And they hum particularly loudly when they want to go home.

(I neither twit nor tweet, so this is the only way I can respond to twitter comments).

But sheep? I'm glad I already have my room reservations! Clearly SS11 will be better than the first!

I knitted a pair of socks with a Crazy Zauberball a few months ago. Until now, I was convinced there had to be a way to make them match. I tried unwinding to find a repeat in the color variation, and I unwound and unwound and unwound. Finally, I just knitted the second sock and let the yarn have its way with me. I was not unpleased with the results, yet it made me vaguely uneasy.

I started making socks while laid off from work about 3 years ago.I kept only a few pair for my self, most are gifts to family and their friends babys. I need speed so I can get these off the needles and on to a pair I would enjoy knitting more. if you could tell me how you wrap the working yarn in your right hand for the lever Irish Cottage style, I think it would help with my too tight tension issue ,if its in one of your books,which one? thanks Loua

Love the fraternal socks. They are charming in their own way, and I am envious of your time warp. Wish that would happen to me sometime. I see that you knitted directly from the Crazy ball without winding. I tried knitting from one as a center pull ball (yes, I should have known better) and had the worst case of yarn barf ever. But I love the socks & still love the yarn.

Lovely, beautiful socks! (They match so much better than my clothes most days) And, what a joy to finish a sock a day! I have done so, on Christmas Eve, really, it was Christmas morning, but I was using Paton's Classic (I hate their sock yarn, I always run short, even using their patterns) and 3.25mm needles. I'm sure if it had been fingering weight and 2mm, those socks would have taken a month, for spite! Enjoy your socks.

Do you know that Schoppelwolle makes another yarn, that looks like a flying saucer and it has two strings running side by side and they are dyed exactly the same!? Your socks will be the same and it's perfect for magic loop! I have bought one but I haven't begun knitting yet, but I love it already...

You are amazing.

Are those needles the graphite/carbon fiber unbreakable needles? Are they good? They must work well...a sock in a day. Wow!

I love zauerball yarn and colors, but I won't make socks with it anymore because I haven't yet developed the grace to lovingly accept non-matching socks. They raise my blood pressure. I wish it weren't so.
That said, um, each of your socks is lovely.

Glad you said that because I was thinking the same thing. I think I'd be ready to knit another pair with the same yarn and see if you get something similar - then you'd have 2 closer twins. These kind of look more like cousins than twins.

I like the idea of carring those ribs into the sock, though. That's nice.

Not related to those wonderful socks but I just finished At Knit's End. Again, a triumph. I may pass this on to my knitting daughter but only with the understanding that it comes back home when she's finished.

Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!

"try Really Embracing fraternal, and using different patterns (but same yarn) for two socks. It's kind of fun to see if anybody (except knitters) will notice. " I'm doing this with two different pairs - 1st sock of each long ago completed, where is the pattern? Who knows. 2d sock of each will be plain vanilla .... and let the chips fall where they may

Just finished my first sock with the same yarn..and realized they seemed to have dyed it from the middle out, since the repeat patter did not match as proven by your fraternal socks.

I am trying my first pair of two socks at once and I thought I had gotten socks in two different colorways, but it turns out they are the same. They are my fraternal socks, or as I call them, my mixxey matchey socks. You socks look wonderful though :D

It always blows my mind when I read the statstis of guild knitters back in the day that were producinf fine gauge socks for income. Crazy.

DR WHO!!!!!!!!
Great socks! I love the yarn. I just finished a cool pair out of pattern forming yarn for my mom.

Haha. Compare that to my plane knitting yesterday where I had just finished the gusset decreases on the second sock of a pair (Earl Greys actually!) and was zooming along all ready to start the toe with hours to spare on the flight and I lay my second nearly finished sock next to my first fisnished sock and realised I'd knit the first one while I was on crack!
I was supposed to be doing 3 cable crosses every 12 rounds except what really happened is that during the gusset decreases I did 4 cable crosses and then on the foot I did 5 and then just before the toe I did 1. Um...what? So I had to rip back a perfect sock all the way to just before the end of the gusset decreases so that I could make it WRONG like the first one.

I think all that time I wasted must have somehow been transfered to you. ;)

Going from Toronto to Vancouver adds about three hours to your day, if I remember correctly. Perhaps that added to it? Or maybe the lack of distractions on the flight?