So, two weeks before Christmas, Andrea and I decided we would knit Judy a pair of socks which we could adjust to her special long need. We would each knit one sock to make them a gift from both of us. Off we went to the wool shop, talked to the very knowledgeable shop owner who printed us out a pattern adjusted specifically to Judy’s shoe size, and then tried to decide what beautiful wool we would use for Judy’s Christmas gift. We finally chose a thin, multicolor Merino wool in colors that we knew would appeal to her. We studied our pattern and decided we would need some help to “turn the toe” so agreed to come back to the shop a few days later for some help with our knitting. All excited and ready to knit, we spent almost four hours learning to make the toe correctly. During this time there were stitches to count, rows to count, dropped stitches to find, and not a lot of talking. Andrea and I have never been together for that long a period and said so few words to each other!! Once the toe was made, we left for home, ready to tackle the next seven inches of knitting around and around on four, size 1 double-pointed needles. Little did we know that each inch of knitting on those tiny needles would take an hour each! The week before Christmas was not a time when either of us could find that many hours to just sit and knit, so we knew that our plan for the socks to be a Christmas gift was evaporating. Once Christmas was over, we set in again to finish the socks and soon we found ourselves at the dreaded “turn the heel” portion of the sock. Could we remember what we had learned and manage a good heel all by ourselves? We agreed that we had to be together to get it done right, so we spent an entire day together, the knitting interrupted by tea and fresh banana bread, the delivery of Andrea’s new living room furniture, a quick run out for soup and sandwich, and her three children coming home from school at three different times. But by dinnertime, we had done it, two wonderful heels!! Now we were on our own again to knit three more inches on those four needles to cover the ankle. That accomplished, and after a quick consultation, we constructed the six inches of ribbing up the leg. This is the photo taken this morning when we met to bind off our socks. My sock is on the pink needles and Andrea's on the green. We shaped the socks into the form of a heart and wrote Judy's initials with our binding off yarn!
Over more tea and cranberry orange coffee cake, we finished our last stitches together sitting in my kitchen. What joy when they were done and we could each actually model our own sock!! Here they are, our gift of love to a special friend.
We will give Judy her belated Christmas gift on Monday evening at our Church Ladies monthly gathering. It’s a craft night here at my home and so appropriate for her to receive them then, even if Christmas was four weeks ago! Andrea is writing a poem to go with our labor of love, and I will find suitable gift wrappings.
Today we realized that each sock took 20 hours to make, and being the professional women that we are, we are worth at least $25 per hour, so this makes each sock worth $500, plus the $12 for each of the two skeins of wool we purchased, so all in all, these are Judy’s $1,024 pair of socks!!! She’d better wear them every day for the rest of forever to get our money’s worth. Hahaha!
Not only was this a special gift for a special person, but it was a gift for Andrea and me as well. We had so much fun, laughed so hard, and spent precious hours together enjoying each other's friendship. Here we are about a year ago, I'm on the left, Andrea on the right.
As a PS: I am very grateful to live in this time, when I can just run to store to buy a new pair of socks. If I had to knit my family's socks, they would each have one pair that they would have to wash out every night! I told Andrea that it was a good thing we were each knitting one sock because if I had gotten to the end of the pattern and read the dreaded line, "make the second sock", I think I would have cried!
3 comments:
I certainly hope she appreciates them. I am still reeling from the apparent disregard for the amount of work put into a very special gift for a family member, and yet; I don't think they had a clue that I had made it. Perhaps that's a compliment? Maybe?? Anyway, good job on this very thoughtful. love-filled gift!
What a fun post!
My Godmother was a prodigious (? I think that's the word) knitter. She would knit a pair of socks for my uncle ( who had huge feet) in an afternoon.
They would go fishing, and he would fish and she would knit. Four needles and a ball of yarn and away she went.
She tried to teach my mother, but somehow Mum said when she did it..all the stitches would end up on one needle...!
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