Kate calls this my "obligatory picture post". I call it sharing my excitement with the world. Ok, with a small part of the world. Here is a photo of my Snowflake sock in progress. I upsized the needles because I have wide feet and I also have an ankle that was dislocated once and now is larger than the other one and has a tendency to swell to the size of a grapefruit. I am also not using the Lorna's Laces Shepherd's sock yarn that the pattern suggested. I am using Telemark from Knitpicks. It was cheap, $1.99 a skein and I wasn't sure I was going to like stranded color work and didn't want to invest a lot of money into something that would gather dust. The yarn is not real soft. It is 100 percent wool and will need handwashing. It does knit up nice and spongey. The sock fits on my ankle well and is not tight. It is stretchier than I anticipated. Every pattern for stranded color I read said it does not stretch. And I LIKE IT! The pattern is difficult enough for me to not be bored as I learn and easy enough that I can follow it now that Kate has made it bigger for me. I am halfway through the last pattern repeat on the cuff and will then do the solid color heel and the striped bottom-of-the-foot. It is so cool to see the pattern develop as I knit. I am in awe that it works. Yay for new skills! Now I will have to find a pattern for some pretty mittens to go with my bright red coat for winter.