Socks for Mom

I love to knit, and in the past year I've forced myself to try some new things. The real artist in my family, though, is my Mom, who makes jewelry. (I also have an aunt who is a painter. I've inherited their interest in creative arts but none of their talents.) When I visited my Mom over the holidays, I admired this very cool pair of earrings she made (which, unfortunately, are too small for my digital camera to get a good picture of). As always, she told me to just take them. And as always I protested a little though secretly hoped she'd insist--which she always does. Then I had an idea--we could trade. I'd brought along some knitted things to show her, and she seemed to really like the socks. So, I proposed that in return for the earrings, I make her a pair of socks. I finished them last night:

They're actually much prettier in person (in sock?) than in this photo. I think the open rib pattern worked well with Cascade Fixation. I'm not wild about knitting in CF because it's so spring-y, but the effect in this pattern is kind of lacey, and I like it. (Additional pattern deets here.) I'll ship these off tomorrow.