A few months ago I hinted to my friend Rayna that I love knitted socks, but never have time to make myself some. It hardly qualifies as hinting, I suppose, since I went on to hint that I loved them ankle-high, in variegated yarns, that I was a size 6 and that, therefore, one skein of koigu oughta do it.

Well, even with my egregious hinting Rayna found a way to take it a step further. Not only did I get birthday socks…

But I got Christmas socks.

And tucked behind the socks? A skein of yarn, and the pattern for… the Shireen! Yep, I have a sock pattern named after me, and I’m more delighted with that than any sane person would think is reasonable. You’ve got to head over and check it out, the pattern is easy, fast and free – Ravelry link here.

On top of that (it gets better!) Rayna taught me to magic loop socks, and walked me though my first sock (and then I walked through both pairs of socks, haha, no really. Ok, I’m lame. Wait, lame, get it?).

Magic loop has been a real treat – my poor wrists were done with dpns and this method makes all the difference. I even knitted my first pair of socks in over 6 months – a pair of Shireen’s, for Tito! (get your mind out of the gutter, they’re socks!).

He loves em. And I love having a man that wears crazy socks. What’s better than that? A girlfriend who loves you enough to knit you socks! Thanks Ray, they’re honestly one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten :) Ravelry page for Tito’s socks here.