I hope Roy & Mark would approve.

In February, I started a pair of socks for Alex.  After knitting him the Opal Tree Frog socks on size 0s that took for-stinkin-ever (and probably don't fit him now, but I don't want to think about that), I thought it would make more sense to knit him socks out of DK weight yarn.  After all, he doesn't really wear them with shoes.  He wears them to sleep in and around the house on cold days.

I bought 2 skeins of Knit Picks Swish Superwash DK in olive green.  I knit two socks at a time and when I finished the heels, I noticed there was only a small amount of yarn left.  Like a tiny wad of yarn.  The skeins were 50 grams and I just figured that would be enough for a pair of socks.  I was incorrect.

Fortunately, I had some Swish DK in a brownish color.  Alex is not a stripey sock wearing kid, so I wanted to do something with the brown yarn that would give me a cuff, but not be stripey or boring.  He's a creative kid and so funny.  He's been working all year on a comic called "The Ninja Adventures of Roy & Mark".  Drawn on a large sketch pad using mostly stick figures, it's clever, detailed, and cute and we all look forward to the next issue.  Thus, this cuff seemed suitable:

Do not look too closely.  Just notice that they are stranded stick figures and then look away.  Because this photo shows the 4th time that I knit these suckers.  First time, my stranded knitting looked lovely and even and that sock did not fit over Bigfoot's my son's heel.  I went up a needle size and added a few stitches to the motif.  Still did not fit.  I went up two more needle sizes and added a whack more stitches and finally we got them on his foot.  And I was thoroughly sick of knitting little stick dudes.  By that point, neat stranding was abandoned in favor of just finishing a sock that would fit.

These were supposed to be a quick and simple project, one to take with me and knit on the go.  Ha and ha.  I did kind of create more of a fit problem by doing a slip stitch heel.  I thought it looked neat, but it did take away some stretch that we could have used.  I believe he's wearing a size 11 1/2 shoe now.  At age 12.

Note the rather floppy cuffs.  That's from increasing and increasing and increasing because by cracky, these socks will fit over those feet!  I'm not proud of these cuffs.  They are not my finest knitting.  I may run a bit of elastic thread through them later if they fall down too much.

Although this pair was a total headache, Alex likes them and is happy to have more warm socks that his mom knit for him.  Even though it's July in El Paso.  He is such a great kid.

Comments

[Carly]

How cute! You are so creative in your sock making endeavors!

[Lydee]

cute socks; good story!

[weezalana]

Very impressed with your sock hierogly... hirogli... stick figure stranding. And it sounds like you're raising a very knit-worthy pre-man. ;)

[Marie]

The absolute best part is that he likes them. I'm not even sure if the people I knit for appreciate my hand knits.

[Sheila from the ZOO]

Ha, ha, ha. I love them. My son would love them. The one that's 12 also. He draws little stick figure cartoons too.
Think you could knit a pair for his size 14 feet?

I shall comiserate with you for your big sock knitting. I know just how long it takes to knit socks that big.

[Knitalittle]

They look great. Love the color and he will need them in another, what 3-4 months :)

[Ava]

You are a mighty sweet mamma . . . my girls are begging for socks and I just never seem to get around knitting for them.

[tiennie]

I think those are awesome!!

[Terrillyn]

Alex will truly appreciate these socks in just a few months. It can get pretty chilly in the desert. I sure miss it right now. Do I want to move back there? Not this week. I just read about all your boxes and I know that I would have many more - - filled with junk. And trash . And STUFF. No yarn though. Well, maybe the socks I started before my hand went numb. Guess I should think about finishing them now.