I ♥ soccer

I love soccer, especially games at the national level such as the European championship and World Cup soccer. I root for Germany since I have German origins (Bundesliga has started, hooray!). So it’s natural that I have to have a pair of Germany socks – hey, other people have lucky shorts or lucky shirts or paint their nails/faces/bodies in their team colors, so why not lucky socks?

“German” Spice Man socks

I cast on for these socks during the 2010 Fifa World Cup – the men’s World Cup in South Africa. I knit the first sock, and then I developed second sock syndrom – I just couldn’t make myself finish the pair. Part of the problem was that I’d already knit two pairs of socks with the same coloring (not just for me). The yarn is Regia World Ball, in the colorway Germany. Regia released a number of colors, mirroring the flags of different countries, and a version with thin stripes for the county capitals.

Anywho, this was part of my great sock experiment – I tried out different methods of sock construction – toe-up and toe-down, knitting with dpns, two circular needles and with the magic loop method. I now know that toe-up works best for me, with two circular needles. I can do the other versions too, it’s just that they’re not my preference.

I finished up this pair while watching the 2011 Women’s World Cup, during the quarterfinal game Germany vs. Japan. I finished them before the end of the game, and then Germany promptly lost to Japan. Ooops. So hopefully they’re still lucky – I’ll test it during tonight’s friendship soccer match between Germany and Brazil.

The pattern is Yarnissima’s Spice Man – as all Yarnissima designs, this is perfectly shaped and fits like a glove. I’ll definitely be knitting up more of her patterns – with other color selections of course. Then again, I still need to knit up two more adult pairs of socks, and three kid size pairs in these colors – especially since the European championships are next year. That way I have some time, so now I’m on the search of patterns that work well with these wide stripes. I’d preferable knit a somewhat interesting pattern instead of another pair of vanilla socks… If you have any ideas or pattern suggestions, let me know!

So here’s Yarnissima’s Ravelry pattern page, and here’s my project page.  And hey, maybe I’ll knit a pair of socks in the colors of the Brazilian flag for the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.