The Never-ending Socks Story.....also known as My Dad's Father's Day Gift

I love my dad dearly and I thought that since I'm a knitter I would knit him a pair of socks for Father's Day. Well.....I thought I could just whip these out quick and I would be done by Father's Day(June 17, 2007)


I casted on the socks on May 24th. My initial plan for the cuff down socks was a 2x2 rib stitch pattern using CO 80 stitches, Lisa Souza's Mahogany Sock !and US 1 circular needles. I started out great and was already decreasing the gusset by Memorial Day. I was thinking though that I might frog the sock and change the stitch pattern if I made a mistake because I really wanted the socks to be special. Well...I did make a mistake. I dropped a stitch next to one of the decreases. I didn't catch the mistake until I was 4 rows above it. I started frogging and didn't stop until I had frogged all of the sock.

I casted on the socks again on May 30th. This time I used a pattern I found in Sensational Knitted Socks; the waffle rib stitch(rnds 1-3: k2p2, rnd 4: purl) and I CO using 88 stitches instead of the 80 because I was worried about them fitting properly. I thought it was a nice simple pattern for male socks and special enough for my dad. I worked my usual 3 day shifts and didn't work on the socks I was too busy. I felt exhausted after day 3. On Monday, I had a fever all day and I felt horrible. I barely knit on the sock that week because all I wanted to do was sleep. I finished the first sock the week of Father's Day and knew that I was going to have to do alot of knitting that week to have the second sock ready by Father's Day. I was optimistic.(I was really delusional. It took 3 weeks to knit the 1st sock... I was still sick). Anyway it took me a little over a week to knit the 2nd sock.

I started calling the pair of socks "the never-ending socks" as I was knitting them. My dad wears a size 12 wide shoe. I used almost 2 skeins of yarn to knit them. The "never-ending" had to do with the size 12. Here's a comparison picture: The blue sock is a size 7 medium and I will use 1 skein to have knit a pair. The brown is my dad's sock.

We have big, wide feet in my family. I wear a size 10 wide. I try to always think positive thoughts and have good feelings when I knit something because I share a piece of myself with the recipient. I know my dad appreciates them and will wear them for many years to come.