There’s something so enjoyable about plain vanilla socks. I think it’s part nostalgia: I remember when my Grandma was teaching me how to knit my first pair of socks. We were sitting in her dining room, I was knitting in her old armchair where she used to read to me when I was little, and she was watching and explaining. It’s such a peaceful and joyous memory.

I decided I’d go back to my roots (so to speak) with my first hand-dyed yarn. I had to modify my Grandma’s plain socks recipe a little because there was only about 59g of yarn. For the leg, I knit 20 rows of 2×2 ribbing over 60 stitches, then 30 rows of stockinette stitch. After a slip stitch heel flap I used short rows to turn the heel, then continued in stockinette stitch until the foot was about 16.5cm long. For the toe, I decreased on two side of every alternating row until I had 12 stitches left and grafted them together with the kitchener stitch.

Now let’s talk about the elephant in the room: these socks are differently coloured! Yes, they definitely are. For some reason, the blue washed out of the larger skein of yarn more than out of the smaller one during the dyeing process. And you know what? It’s super obvious, and I love it. I tried something new that didn’t work out perfectly and that’s okay. We should celebrate the little “flaws” that show that our projects aren’t boring off-the-rack purchases! It makes them unique and beautiful.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Pattern: didn’t use one, see above for my sock recipe

Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit