Jake’s Art of Autumn Socks

Happy Autumn Equinox! What better way to ring in the new season than to share a pair of newly completed fall socks? It took me an entire year to finish these socks, which hibernated post-heel for quite a while. Fortunately I had made them big, so they fit well. Phew! (Note to self: Never start a knitting project for a child and leave it to hibernate for a year. This is generally a bad idea.)

I finished my son’s Art of Autumn socks over the weekend, and I urged him to show off his flexibility so that we could get a nice portrait/sock combo picture. I love it! It’s going on the wall somewhere in the house.

Jacob was a breech baby. In the womb he was positioned perfectly upright with his legs in a V and his feet by his head. When he was born, one leg kept kicking upwards, and we had to see a specialist to make sure he didn’t develop any hip issues. For a while, he had to wear two diapers to help support his hip. In the end, his hips were fine but the flexibility remained, so naturally I took him to baby gymnastics classes and enrolled him in a program for toddlers as soon as he was old enough. He now does recreational gymnastics, Tang Soo Do karate and performs on a karate team where he combines the two. It’s so much fun to watch!

This self-striping autumn rainbow perfection is a colorway called The Art of Autumn (hence my project name), by none other than the brilliant dyer Carol of Havirland Yarns. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I need a full-sized Havirland sweater. Her colors always speak to me, but also Carol is simply an all-around decent, down-to-earth human with great integrity, so she’s always high on my list.

I did not use a pattern for these socks. I worked them two-at-a-time, as I always do, by following the instructions in the book Toe-Up Two-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oates (shown below). My son has very wide feet, so I cast on 12 stitches per sock and increased as is done in the sample socks of the book until the toe bed fit him well. For the heels, I worked FLK’s (Fish Lips Kiss Heels), another one of my go-to’s. I had him try them on throughout the process and stopped where he liked the length. For the cuff I worked a twisted rib for approximately one inch and bound off with Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. The heels, toes and cuffs are worked in Tosh Sock in the colorway Antique Lace.

ABOUT AUTHOR Jamie Hoffman

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