Handspun Pike Place Socks for Hubby
My wonderful husband loves hand-knit wool socks. He has perpetual cold feet - which he blames on his 6'3" of height. Specifically that his legs are so long that by the time the blood reaches his feet it's cold. I giggle and remind myself to knit him more socks. Interestingly enough he only wears his wool socks over cotton socks. Apparently it's a perfect combo!
Back in 2010 I attended Shepherd's Harvest in Lake Elmo, MN. I picked up 5 ounces of a 90% Romeldale/10% Mohair blend from Winterwind Farm's booth. It's a dark photo, but the mohair glows just enough to be seen.
This year I was attempting an overzealous goal for Tour de Fleece spinning. Thankfully I managed to actually finish one of the projects. The other is still sitting drafted, but unspun. I didn't manage to finish within the time frame of the Tour, but I had several good reasons for that, namely a sick little boy. Still, it was finished and I was thrilled with the results.
A teeny bit uneven from each other, but still in a similar ballpark. As soon as I started my spinning swatch I had the epiphany that this was to become Navajo-plied socks for Hubby. He was in need of a dark brown, and this yarn was just rough enough that it should hold up extra well. Plus the 3-ply would give it even more strength.
Now the tricky part - finding a pattern that Hubby actually liked that wasn't plain ribbing. Not that plain ribbing is bad, but almost all of his other socks have it, and variety can be wonderful! I ended up doing a mega search on Ravelry and my first pick ended up being his immediate favorite. We did look through the others, but he was already sold on the Java Socks by Cailyn Meyer from Knitty Winter 2011. It's a free pattern too.
Right away I knew that I wouldn't follow the pattern exactly. I have a recipe I use (more of a spreadsheet where I plunk in numbers for THEE perfect fit for my Hubby) which is toe up, not top down like the pattern. Thus I opted to simply take the pattern repeat and do the rest as my standard recipe. After all, once you get something to work perfectly, and the recipient is happy, why mess with it?
I ended up only using two of my three skeins of yarn. And I had very little left of those two. But my 51g skein of yarn is still sitting next to the desk. I thought of making EM a matching pair, but Little Girlie knits are of a higher priority at the moment. I decided to call these Pike Place as it's his favorite roast of coffee from Starbucks. I thought it quite fitting since the pattern name is Java Socks.
I'm thrilled with how these turned out. And the fit is perfect. The yarn ended up much closer to a standard sock weight than I expected. I figured I'd get more of a Sport Weight and get away with larger needles. Nope! Thankfully my hands got used to the twisted stitch pattern and before I knew it these were flying off the needles. And they needed to as they are his main Christmas present this year! Of course I had to take and hide them, otherwise I'm sure he would have found a reason to wear them to work. His office is a little chilly this time of year. It's so special to know that something I've poured love, sweat, and a few tears into will be keeping him warm for a long time to come.
Love ya Hubby!
Pike Place Socks project page
Love ya Hubby!
Pike Place Socks project page
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