helen sock

now socks are a gift that you must be careful about giving—it’s pretty easy for recipients to become addicted to them and you may not want to spend most of your knitting life enslaved to a mile-long gift list.

that said, socks are one of those things that lots of knitters just keep making in the background, using commuting or waiting time to create a nice pile on the gift shelf through spring, summer, and fall—knowing that come december, they will become the pet gift of some lucky (and special) recipients.

the helen sock is perfect for the knitter on the go—just involved enough to be completely entertaining for hours, but simple enough to knit without charts or other accoutrement to keep track of—you just grab the yarn and needles to go.

socks like this are a magic bullet during the holiday rush for  variety of reasons—let me count the ways:

1. totally relaxing to knit; soothes frazzled nerves and centers oneself in just a few rounds (and who doesn’t need that just about now?)

2. knits up speedily—so much so that you can dispense with a pair in a week of evenings or less and still wish you were knitting them when they are done. some knitters will finish a pair in oddments of time they find through the day between other tasks

3. warm and cozy texture that is universally appealing, very stretchy, and molds to a variety of shapes; in other words, you can knit them for a very important recipient who has yet to make themselves known but will almost certainly materialize at the last moment. mark my words.

4. has built in depth and stitch definition that works with a really wide range of yarn types—you almost certainly have something right in the house that will work for this design (but we hope you’ll consider using our breakfast blend fingering yarn as shown in the dark pair here)

5. unisex design with multiple sizing so that if you enjoy them, you can knit several pair for anyone from children to teens to that big guy in your life.

6. truly entertaining to work—trust me, you won’t want  put them down. they are the perfect project to get snowed in with, providing a complete experience on their own or as an accompaniment for a movie marathon. and if you are a commuter knitter, these are your go-to project.

shown above, the helen sock in size medium with the pattern extending all the way to the top cuff, knit in breakfast blend fingering yarn, color espresso (to order the kit, click here). these are soft, dense, and cushy, with great cling, but not too tight.

and below, the medium size topped by a ribbed cuff (pattern contains instructions for both versions) in natural dye studio angelus, a luxury blend for indulging oneself or someone else.

to purchase pattern or view complete pattern information, please click here or here for helen sock kit, to visit the knitspot pattern shop. or purchase the pattern in our ravelry pattern shop.

big thanks to carol, who knit the espresso sock sample for us; she is a speedy one and always so generous with her skills; thank you carol! and helen knit the second sample in angelus yarn, but even more importantly, helen was craving slouchy socks and asked me to design some, so we owe this pattern to her, really. thank you helen for the inspiration and photos!

so if you are a sock knitter, i hope you will enjoy this design; it’s my favorite kind of sock . . .