Socktober Day 1 on Oct 3

There are lots of things to celebrate about October including Halloween at the end which this year I think I will forgo. We have two families on our street with children and I’ll do something special and deliver to them, but otherwise I think it will be lights out here.

But if you are a knitter or spinner there are other events during the year…most of which are in person and were naturally altered to virtual or cancelled. There was Tour de Fleece (a spin each day during the Tour de France) but I didn’t get the energy up for it. But now I’m trying to make an effort and it seems like Soctober was something I could do.

Main idea – You knit a pair of socks in October. Well that is no problem. If I’m really motivated I can knit a pair of socks in about 5 days maybe less. If I’m not motivated…well that’s why I have multiple double point knitting needles. Just saying.

So I’m a few days late on starting but I thought I would post a picture a day of a pair of socks I have already knit. Some of these were done a few years back and some just came off the needles a few days back. Most are some blend of wool but I have no idea which breeds. Many have nylon in the yarn to make them tougher. And the one that I should have used for October 1 is bamboo.

Socktober 1 – I knit these a while back, but not more than 15 years ago. They are the bamboo yarn socks. If the soles look a little brownish these socks have occasionally been worn without shoes and are slightly stained as a result. They have held up pretty well, but I’ve taken the picture from their ‘good side’. They have holes in the toes that I need to darn. Yes, I darn socks. After that much work I’m not beyond putting in a few more minutes to fix a hole. It is relaxing in a way similar to knitting.

Tell you what, I’ll take a picture of before and after when I darn these socks. So you get the good side for today and a promise.

I should also tell what the pattern is, but these were made back so far that I don’t even remember where I pulled the pattern from. The socks have columns of eyelets which I think are rather nice. I have thick ankles (always have – and another story) so most of my socks are pretty thick in the leg. A great advantage of knitting my own is that most store socks are way too tight. And knit from the top down which is the way I prefer knitting socks.

These are a little faded over time and the soles are a little brown from wearing without shoes. The thread was originally light and dark turquoise with light and dark lavender. I still like these and they’ve had hard wear over the years.

These give me the feeling of an archeological find. They might have been dug out of the remains of a hut or a grave. Maybe even found in a Danish bog, lol.

So I shall call these Day 1.