Firestarters finished

I actually finished these a week ago but I needed my daughter's feet to model them and her social life and my work life hasn't allowed for daylight photography until now. I really enjoyed knitting these but I wish I had added a little more length to the foot so they fitted me. I can get my foot into them only just, so I will have to consider another worthy recipient. My daughter is not a 'green' person - if they were black or red she would be more interested! I would love to do them again for myself, not that I really need any more socks, and being the middle of a hot summer here in the Southern Hemisphere, the ones I have won't be wearing out soon!

I have already started another pair of socks - I will have another project that may slow my progress soon ( a request from the sock model), so I thought I would get a head start on February while I can. I followed the example of some others by exporting my Ravelry stash to Excel and using a random number generator - came up with Opal Lollipop. It is one of the few sock yarns available from New Zealand retailers, and when I first started knitting socks I bought several balls. After a few months of exploring Ravelry , reading blogs and venturing into online shopping, poor old Opal was feeling a little unloved at the bottom of the stash. The socks I first knitted from it have turned out to be hardwearing, and they are lovely and soft once washed, it's just that the colour pattern doesn't suit complicated stitch patterns, and they always look the same in stocking stitch (sorry - stockinette for you US readers!). The challenge therefore was to find something that suits the yarn without being too boring to knit. I am not using a standard pattern - so there has been frogging involved. I think they are going to work out - I will post photo's and more detail when I am sure! I will give these to my Mother - who has been dropping hints since I knitted socks for my Father for Father's Day.