Are you a Fan?

Of Harry Potter?  If so, then you'll probably recognize what these socks represent.

My friend sent me the red yarn.  We had been talking how we both liked the Monkey pattern, and knit it several times, but neither of us had a pair of our own monkeys.

Upon receiving this lovely little hank of red sock yarn, I promptly wound it into a cake and printed off the toe up modification to the monkey pattern.  I also modified it by making the repeat narrower.  The original monkeys are worked over 16 stitches, but because I needed to have a sock that was wider than 64 stitches, I narrowed the repeat to 12 stitches and added a second repeat.  This allowed me to make a sock that was 72 stitches around, yet still maintain the design that monkeys are famous for. 

As long as I was doing new things - I decided to try a new short row heel.  I don't normally like short row heels because I can never make them look purdy.  This one - not too shabby.  It's a bit shallow for my liking, but I think that would be fixable in the future. 

At the top of the sock, I modified this owl chart to put little cabled owls in the ribbed cuff.  I love them - I hope my friend does - if not - maybe she'll send them back.

So the Harry Potter relationship?  Well when the kids are at school their parents send them letters.  These letters are mostly delivered by owls.  And when Harry or any of the gang are in trouble the letters scream at them and are bright red!  I haven't heard of any of the kids having a monkey - so I added the owls to my "howler monkeys!"