Year of the Sock

I have heard that announcing a goal makes you more likely to stick with it, so:

I've declared 2009 the Year of the Sock. I'm going to knit a pair for every month, partly inspired by a recent tour through my bulging sack of yarn stash that had me going, holy crap I'd better knit a LOT of socks before we leave Africa. January is done. I'm a half inch into the ribbing of sock two of this month's pair, and just realized the other day that February is shorter than most months so I'd better speed things up.

I was knitting while waiting for a meeting that didn't happen because the co-op chairperson had gone to town for three days (I knit for sanity, and boy does it help). The dude accompanying me while I waited asked if I had a machine for making socks. Um, doing it by hand is kind of the point of Doing It By Hand.

I've been using the same sock recipe for all five Zambia pairs and it just occurred to me to ask if any of you knitters out there have a favorite (easy!) sock pattern that I should know about. ?Anyone?