I completed making the pair of (secret) Flamingo socks… this afternoon! About 2 hours before the birthday dinner for my sister Silvia. I’ve never knit so close up to a deadline, let alone wet-block right before gifting, hilarious! And weirdly I was quite calm about it. The socks were handed over a little damp and on sock blockers.

My sister was thrilled, as was I. I feel as though the socks are a perfect representation of Silvia, what a design brief! The flamingos, the tropical themed self-striping yarn (by HodgePodge fibres) and the co-ordinating cuff and heel (Lang Jawoll). Thank you extensive sock yarn collection! The other yarns used included, Advent mini skeins for the Flamingos and flowers and the white is Patons Patonyle.

The Flamboyant Flamingos pattern is by Charlotte Stone. After knitting these socks, I would highly recommend her patterns. I feel other designers don’t tackle the ‘getting the colourwork over the heel’ situation very well. Just going up a needle size, is not going to cut it. Charlotte has you increase your stitch count before the colourwork section (in this case by 8 sts), and then decrease back down after the colourwork. Huzzah! I have the formula for unlocking knitting colourwork socks and can apply these principles to other colourwork sock patterns not necessarily by Charlotte.

The creative juices are flowing for the next surprise pairs. But I’ll need to keep these under wraps until after the gifting, as the recipients are readers of the blog. You know me, I don’t want to spoil a surprise.