Carry on Knitting

One of my favorite places (no news to regular readers) is Ravelry.com. It is out of beta testing which means if you are interested in knitting, crocheting, etc, you can sign on as a new member at will, with no waiting. I'm 'otterwise' (of course) if you join and want to find me.

I check the newest patterns there all the time. I'm not just looking for new things to make, but wanting to see what ideas people have come up with (check out the Ogre my Ogre Hat), and, when I am lucky, being able to read a lovely story behind a pattern.
Today, a beautiful sock pattern was posted by Jana Falls, called Grandma's Cable and Lace Socks. (link is to Jana's site)
With her permission, I am sharing her story here (she also gave me permission to post the photo) :

My grandmother was an avid knitter. I remember receiving handmade sweaters for birthdays and Christmas when I was little. More than anything else though, I remember her knitting socks. The same socks every time. So many that there are family stories about entire garbage bags full of homemade socks.

My grandmother passed away when I was 17. I only learned how to knit a year and a half ago, and am a little bummed that I never learned from her while I had the chance. Sadly, when she passed away we didn’t keep any of her knitting supplies (although it was really just a few pairs of needles). She had been knitting her socks for so long that she no longer needed a pattern, so when she died the sock pattern died with her. In fact, we’re not even sure if there was ever a pattern to begin with!

This past year as a Christmas gift for my mom I found someone locally who was able to reverse engineer some of my surviving pairs of grandma’s socks into a written pattern. I wanted to post it online so that other people can enjoy these socks as well. And if other people knit them, a little part of my grandmother stays in the world.

Thanks, Jana, for sharing your grandmother with us.

I think I will cast on a pair of these. My own ankles and feet are hard to fit, but I think the lace and cable pattern look very forgiving, and perfect for summer.