Sunday, March 04, 2012

A Knit-Worthy Husband is a True Treasure


Knitters (especially in their early years) want to knit gifts for family and friends. The trouble is some of those people have no clue about the value of the gift. They equate it to stopping off at Target and picking up a hat or a scarf machine-knit in some eastern land with cheap labor, rather than the true gift of caring and hours spent in the making. Such people are still loved, but no longer considered 'knit-worthy'. Any gift you make for them may languish in a drawer, be left on a bus or just thrown away when the person moves (or at best, donated to charity).
I am very lucky in that I am married to an extremely knit-worthy man. He is quite artistic in his own right, having among other fibery endeavors made a pair of jeans for himself, and embroidered nautical themes on some linens (before we met). He no longer does any fiber crafting, instead choosing to learn how to cook gourmet meals. (As I often say, I am a lucky woman!).
So I started knitting a pair of socks for Oscar sometime last year. Here are my paraphrased Ravelry notes on the project (I also discussed this sock in this Otterwise Post back in January)

These have been an adventure. Oscar takes the largest size. When I started the foot of the first one, he asked me not to continue the texture onto the foot portion. I had already begun the foot, but switched over to stockinette. The second sock’s foot is all stockinette, so it doesn’t precisely match sock 1. Ah well, no one will see it anyway except in the photos here. 
-Then he asked if I could make these (top down) socks longer in the leg. So when I finished sock #2 I went back and cut off the ribbing with my steeking scissors, unpicked a row and placed the loops on the dpns. Now I am working upward in pattern, determined to double the length of the sock. 
-The socks as written are fine for most legs but Oscar has brawny Scots-Norwegian calves as big around as a wee baby’s head. The extra width seemed to eat up the length and because he gets cramps in cold weather, he really wants knee socks. 
-So I bought more of the Looking Glass and am currently knitting up on sock #1… 
Good thing I enjoy the stitch pattern! 
Finished Socks 1 and 2 with Jeni’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. 
I highly recommend this stitch pattern for chunky legs, it did a marvelous job of fitting with no additional shaping! Sock pattern is Anne Hanson’s Cinder Block Sock. Yarn is Knit Picks Imagination in  Looking Glass 
Socks are finished, and he loves them. He made a point to tell me he knows how much I love him because of how long I made them. My husband is VERY knit-worthy!


Indeed he is. And I am probably going to start on another pair of socks for him this week.

4 comments:

Ria said...

They look great!!

My husband is very agreeable to all my knitting and my growing stash - as long as I promise to never make him anything.

LynnM said...

They are gorgeous! Only the best for the best!

Anonymous said...

AWWWWWWW!

AlisonH said...

Those are beautiful! What a work of art and love. (Said the woman who has not yet ever knit her own husband a pair.)