Repeat..

Never change a winning team, right?
I'm currently working on my fifth pair of Madder Ribbed Socks by Nancy Bush. They have come to be my dad's favourite socks. He only has 3 pairs now, because my mum shrinked the pair I made him for Christmas 2012, so they live with me now...
If my dad could have it his way I would be knitting nothing but socks for him until he had enough to wear a pair every single day. He can't have his will, but I have comitted to knitting him 4 pairs in 2013. The first pair is already done and handed over to him on his birthday in January. The pair that is currently on the needles will be his Christmas gift, since I want that out of the way.
The remaining 2 pairs will be knitted whenever I feel like it.

Now the reason I'm really knitting my dad's Christmas socks in March is very selfish. Of course it will be nice to have the gift out of the way early in the year, but that is not the biggest reason. I'm really knitting them because I need the yarn, that I am hoping will be left I've finished all 4 pairs.
You see I picked up my John 6:12 blanket this weekend and did the math. I only need 11 more squares to be able to begin asembling it. All the squares are made of left over sock yarn. I will need to buy a skein or two for the boarder and asembling, but a baby blanket for 30-60 DKK is VERY cheap and will make a wonderful gift.

If I focus my knitting on the socks I can usually complete a pair in about a week. I am tempted to just take a month out of the calendar knittingwise and turn out all 3 pairs, so that I can work on the blanket. We'll see how I feel after finishing this pair.

I was afraid that knitting the same sock pattern over and over for my dad would become boring, but so far it hasn't. It feels very zen by now. I am making a few changes to this pair, after listening to my dad rave about how much he loves his socks. I know he would like a more stretchy cast on (Thank you Jeny for the surpricingly stretchy cast on/bind off) and a wider toe. I haven't decided on the toe yet, but I have 3 books on socks so I'm sure I can find one he will like.