yeah, right, only grandmas knit here in Germany... so everyone thinks I'm a weirdo as I knit (yes, I'm 26 and I love knitting...). Once I was knitting in the train and two Omis were delighted to see me ("oh, you're knitting? That's so great! What have we knit when we were young...")
And yes, if I'd have seen you knitting in the English style, I would have watched you, too; I just don't understand how you make it to knit this way...
Grüße aus Gießen :o)

Ursl

Those stripes really are some of the best-looking ones Regia makes. Awesome.

Geeks unite! Knit on :) The socks came out great!

If I ever go to Germany (by then I probably will be an Oma, so no shock value there), I will knit Fair Isle with one yarn in each hand.

Your socks look great! I love thos stripes... just think of all the ends you would have to weave in if you changed colors instead of using self-striping yarn.

The socks look beautiful! I just love the colors, and the way you matched up the stripes is amazing.

Geeks! I've been a geek forever. First D&D, then books, then the viola, now knitting. BUT what the muggles do not understand is that being a geek (and doing what gives you joy, in spite of the masses) is THE BEST!

oooh how does he use technology... I wouldnt mind knitting into the night :)
Especially on my own regia canadian colours (manitoba) socks!

Am I an "Omi" because I knit although I'm 26 years old?

Greetings aus der Nähe von München!

I'm from Toronto and I have to admit they don't make me think of home, sorry. But they are cute, just the same. :D

Wow, those stripes are perfect! Color me so impressed. And, good on you for bringing English knitting to the Continent. (I personally prefer continental, but do both, and darn it, boundaries are meant to be stretched, not closed!)

Those socks look great! Alison, are you knitting a short row toe?

if you wanna feel weird, just come to spain and knit in public. people take photos of our s'n'b group... we feel like monkeys! ;)

Sorry Alison - those colours don't remind me of Toronto. Had they been blue and white, well maybe!

I'm am so amazed at how fast you knit. Don't you have two kids, or are they just borrowed for the adorable pictures??
Do you knit English?? Everyone always look at me and says, hey, I've seen them knit like that in the movies but I've never seen it in real life. I'm in Berlin. I knit English, American or with my right hand-however you want to call it. A German knitter also told me it's the grandma method because it's so slow. That's why I'm curious how you knit and how you knit so fast. :)
Great stripes!!

Alison havent you mentioned all the Germans commenting here or seen all the german knitblogs? It seems knitting is hip again, but isnt as it was in the eighties. Those days there were yarnstores all over, but a lot of them closed in the nineties. And I am no Granny too with my nearly 3 years, but I wear socks my Granny knit for me. I have so much from her, so there is no need to knit them on my own. BTW did you get my mail?
Leieb Grüße

ÄÄäh Liebe Grüße

Those socks are stripey wonderfulness!

Oh, come on Alison, you're no grandma! I'm turning 24 on Friday...apart from that I'm a guy..and an Asian (I'm from Thailand, nobody knits there). I've had my moment of knitting on the train and people gawking at me (even though I knit continental)..but nobody had the courage to actually ask or say something (only people in the LYSs would do that to me).

BTW, how on earth could you knit THAT fast! Even though I slaved all day and night on my Meilenweit Fantasy, I've still half the foot and the toe to do...and I'm intent on finishing it tonight. It's going to be my very first pair of socks I've knitted myself (with holes where I picked up the stitches on the heel too loosely). I need to learn how to do short row heels. Anyway, as soon as I finish this sock, I'll cast on #4727 Vancouver and make a pair of Jaywalker out of it!

Now, I am generally no fan of the self-striping sock yarn, but I LOVE those! I will have to track down some Canadian Color for sure. The question: will I have the patience for the matching heel???

Your latest socks are beautiful. I hope you'll answer (if you can) the question of how you knit so quickly. Lately, I've come to the conclusion that all fast knitters must be knitting Continental, but you don't. Please tell ... what is your secret? Is there hope for us slower knitters that we can pick up our pace?

ooo i love them! Do I have this right? No update this week?

wow those socks are pretty awesome! i love the striping. how in the world did u get them to line up SO perfectly like that!

oh by the way, i'm the reese that's been visiting knitsmiths the past two weeks that you've been gone. i think you even made an update to the knitsmiths page with my socks!

I can hardly believe how well those socks match. That wasn't just luck; that took skill! :-)

And I love those colors. I don't think you can buy that line of Regia over here, can you?

When I lived in Germany from 1989 to 1994 (I lived in Giessen, like Ursl), all the ladies in the theater knit while waiting backstage. I spent a lovely year singing in the Extra-Chor at the StadtTheatre and absolutely everyone, all ages, stars included, knit while we were waiting for our next call on stage. There were a couple good yarn shops that I remember. I still have some yarn that I bought there. And no one ever looked at me funny while on the bus or train. I suppose times do change.

Being from Toronto, I can say those do have a vaguely Toronto vibe. But I don't really know why. It might be the whole "pink is the new red" and "orange is the new pink" thing.

But I've also got a fever, so the drugs might be talking here...

Cool socks! I love how you did the toes, with the chunkier stripes. I think one of my books describes doing toe-up socks that way, but I've never tried it. I'll have to see how it looks for my next pair :)

Not all Omas knit! My OH's mother knows nothing about knitting, nothing. I give her the most descriptive list you can imagine, just to get a few balls of sock yarn when she's over there. Once she insisted that the german word for knitting was a specific word which I had never heard before, we looked it up in the dictionary and it was crochet, she didn't even know that there was a difference!

Dawn

There's a lady who comes into our store pretty much every day who is from Germany. She took my knitting one day and showed me how she knits. Totally different!! It was waaayyy faster than how I knit. I have the idea of how she did it, but any attempts I tried failed. Maybe sometime I'll get her to show me again only slower!

Girl, your speed is amazing! I think you have taught the boys to knit on the side, or have is your "technology" a knitting Lego robot? And those heels are so perfect!

Maybe it's the snow, or the fact that I live in downtown Toronto, but those socks don't remind me of Toronto at all. They remind me of flowers, not dirty concrete and massive towers of glass and steel. Maybe if the socks were a mixture of greys and blues.

I can't say they remind me of Toronto. I agree with Jeanne, grey would be more accurate. Or at least it would be a better representation of Toronto in February. In the summer, a few colours thrown in would be okay!

The socks are lovely!! :o)

Great socks and I LOVE those stripes. Just out of curiosity, what type of heel is that?
Nancy

Toronto? Really? Those certainly aren't the colours we have here now. Mind you...the Canadian winter does sort of leave you feeling a little bleak. Maybe you need to ask again in June. Toronto or not...they sure are purty.

My DH says to put Photoshop away and quit trying to trick us with your magic photos. ;)

Seriously, very cute socks and I'm totally impressed with the stripe match-up. *bows*

Yes, I have to say I was a little surprised that those colours would be named for Toronto (I agree on the blue and white), but they are great nonetheless!

not only are they the cutest colors, but you matched the toes and heels - my hero!!!!!

Hey, I'm not a Granny and I knit every time in public.
But it is very difficult to get good stuff for knitting in germany. The most wool I ordered by online-shops.
Greetings from the Rhein-Main-Area
Heidi

Yay, more public knitting in Germany! I always feel very weird when I knit at a cafe or on the bus, but I've had nice encounters with the ignorant as well;-) And bad, bad Alison for making me buy more sock yarn! I just ordered 3 skeins of Canadian Fashion Colors (it should be coloUrs, if they're Canadian, eh!)
Liebe Grüße aus Hamburg,
Julia

they are lovely socks - fab colour.... and matching! Long live knitting geeks, BTW!

In Italy it's even worse than that: not even grannies knit anymore.

Wow those heels look great.

From what I have heard, most european countries are behind in the knitting craze in America. A friend of mine said barely anyone knits in France anymore. That suprised me, what with Phildar, etc. And even though I get funny looks when I knit, so many people here want me to teach them. So far I have gotten one person obsessed with knitting- and hopefully many more on the way!!

Hi Alison,
lots and lots of people knit in Germany, and not all of them are Omis! Don´t spread this awful image, we´re working hard to disprove it ;-) Look at the many German knitting blogs. Maybe you should visit a Stricktreffen next time when you´re in Germany. I guess there´s a group of knitters that meet in the Frankfurt area (other areas as well, almost everywhere in Germany there are knitting groups that meet more or less regularly).
Bye, Tanja, 33 yrs old, knitting and not an Omi :-)

or as my father told me once, you can't run away from your "problems"...

Great socks!

Knitting around the world is funny, we all do it a little differently. My mom was knitting on the bus in the Netherlands once, people staring of course. After a while one of the passengers asked her why she never reached the end of the row :) She was knitting circular... he he...

When I lived in the Netherlands I tried to find circular needles, but no luck!

Gorgeous socks! That's just freakin' magical that you get the stripes to match up!

Alison, the socks look great! What pattern did you use for them? I've been looking for a good simple, basic sock pattern.

Oooooh, when I read that there have been a couple of good yarn shops here in Giessen, I start to sing... ("Where have all the yarn shops gone...") :0(
And reading about circular needles in the Netherlands reminds me of my last trip to France: Somebody in the train asked me too, what kind of odd needles I use...
However, I'm discovering the world of knitting in the internet, it's greeeeeaaaaat!

Those socks are great. Loving the striping and matching heel and toes.

I love the way the toes and heel striping came out! What pattern do you use to shape the toes and heels? I am Sooooooo tired of heel flap socks (and I've only made three pairs so far). I'd like to make my next pair in that style.

Well of course there are of non-oma knitters in Germany, but in the general public opinion, only omas knit. Thank goodness for all you German knit-bloggers out there! Without you I'd never have found all the cool knitshops to visit on my trips to Germany. And next time, Dorothee, I'm definitely going to try to make it to the yarn outlet stores!

As for those Toronto socks, I did work hard to get the heels to match up, but I was really surprised at how perfectly they lined up in that picture. I just put the camera on the floor and stood there. Only afterwards did I see how exactly those colors matched up. All the credit has to be given to Regia for even stripe sequencing I think.

The toes and heels were done with short-rows, following Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' dream socks technique. You can find that pattern in the subscriber section of the Interweave Knits homepage and in a free bootie pattern on the regular Interweave Knits webpage. It's also in her awesome book Simple Socks: Plain and Fancy. And I've written out how I do it in my own ankle sock pattern and techguy socks pattern.

I seriously admire you for getting/making your socks match!! I don't have the patience for it and live with fraternal socks.

They totally look identical, are you sure there are no camera tricks involved??? Just kidding they look fantastic! Great job on a perfect pair!