Remember my gift rant from last post? Well, I felt a lot better once I talked about the reasons that I like gift knitting – and I think in some ways it was a little prayer for something like this, “Please show me some indication that they appreciate the hand knits.”
So on Saturday, my mom says to me, “Do you know how to fix holes in knitting?”
“Yes. Is there something I need to fix?”
“Your father’s socks have holes in each of them and I didn’t think it was fixable.”
“What socks?”
“The ones from a couple of Christmas’s ago.”
“I didn’t know he wore those but yes, I can fix them.”
“He does and that would be great. I didn’t think you would still have any yarn in that colour to fix them with.”
“Yup, I still have it – just in case.”
HE WEARS MY HAND KNIT (and not very well knit since I wasn’t a good sock knitter at that time and they were different sizes/gauges) SOCKS!
We headed to Toronto on Sunday and as I was looking at all the WIPs that I have to finish (mainly sweaters, again from a previous post – no, none of them are finished), I thought, How about I make him a pair of socks for Christmas? If they don’t go well and I have trouble finishing them, no worries because we have another gift for him anyway …
So I raided my stash can came up with very manly Sandes Garn Strompegarn superwash in a brown tweed that I had picked out to knit another striped cardigan but I can get another ball no problem so I am not overly concerned about using this for Dear Dad.
I used the Universal Top-Down pattern from Vogue Knitting’s Ultimate Sock Book since I knit him bottom up socks last time and I don’t think they fit in the heel as best as they could have. He doesn’t have big feet – although he’s 6’ tall, he only wears a 9.5 men’s shoe (yes, I was super lucky and got his feet – my mom wears 10.5), so the sock was only knit until 9.5” from the back of the heel through the foot. My husband wears a 9 men’s shoe so thankfully, as long as they are slightly loose, they will fit Dad perfectly.
Rather than slipping the yarn behind to knit the heel, I slipped it with yarn in front to create a mock seed stitch.
This yarn has acrylic, polyester and wool in it so I am not worried about wear. Besides I can knit another pair!
I will cast the second one on this afternoon and I hope to have them finished before the end of the week …
We are heading to Lettuce Knits tonight to see SweetGeorgia’s Felicia Lo and her trunk show. Who would have thought I would have to travel all the way to TO so see Felicia rather than in our own city? Funny how that happens … I am taking a good friend to the Purple Purl this afternoon as well since she has never been there even though she lives here. It’s sunny here so although cold, it’s a sunglasses day in the center of the universe :)
-r.