Back-to-school socks

Our friend Dan drives Boy 1 to school every morning, as there is no bus from our house and we’re on his way to school. This is a huge gift of time, since Boy 1 doesn’t have to be ready quite as early as he would if he were walking to school. (There is no bus from our house because technically it’s walkable – but walking 1.2 miles and arriving at school by 7:25 am is less than ideal.)As a special thank you to Dan, he is getting a pair of custom handknit socks. He shopped my stash and settled on this skein of Anzula Squishy which I bought at Sock Summit 2011. Dan has excellent taste – the fiber content is 80/10/10 superwash merino/cashmere/nylon. It contains at least a dozen gorgeous shades of brown. Dan picked a bamboo pattern from my Vogue Stitchionary Volume 1 (thanks again, Steven & Jeff). I had to modify it a bit since it’s a 12-stitch repeat, which meant the sock would required a circumference of 60 or 72. I thought 60 was too small and 72 too large, so I rewrote it as an 8-stitch repeat and went for 64. We’ve had a couple of fittings and this will work for him.

I can’t tell you how wonderfully familiar and comfortable it felt to cast on this pair of socks. Socks just feel right to me. I’ve been branching out more lately and not knitting quite so many socks (because a family can, in fact, reach handknit sock saturation), so I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to share the love. Dan envisions wearing these during gamelan rehearsal in the colder months. We don’t wear shoes when we play – but socks are fine. Here’s a photo of Dan (far right) and I (second from right) performing in May 2013 on the steps of my library. We were definitely barefoot that day, but our rehearsal room can be chilly in the winter!

P.S. – the kids walk home in the afternoon – no Dan-bus needed then!