Is there more to life than socks?

Presenting the Professor's Hobbit feet in their modeling debut. He struck this pose without any direction from me.

Pattern: Aran Braid Socks
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential Tweed in Flint

Modifications: I knit the socks over 72 stitches. On the leg, I crossed the cables every third row instead of every other row. (Why yes, I am lazy.) Consequently, I crossed the instep cables every sixth row instead of every fourth. Also, I did a standard slip stitch heel flap instead of an eye of partridge flap. While eye of partridge is my favorite heel flap, to my eye it looks a bit feminine. These are man socks, after all.

Knit Picks Essential is certainly nicer than it used to be. It's softer and smoother, anyway. I'm not sure I'm crazy about this tweed, though. It's unsubtle, unrefined. My hope is that the socks will look better after a few washes.

After these gloomy gray socks (and with the gloomy gray weather), I want my next socks to be more colorful.

Lisa Souza Sock! in Gendarme

This is such a high contrast colorway that I think plain stockinette socks are in order. I'm a bit worried about pooling, so it will be interesting to see how this yarn knits up.

As much as I love knitting socks, I am feeling the need for a non-sock project. Right now I'm waffling between a sweater and a lace stole, with the sweater having a slight edge. After all, one of the main reasons I learned to knit was so I could knit my own sweaters, and I haven't made one yet. (This doesn't really count. Neither does this.) It's my one year knitiversary, and still no sweaters! Pathetic.