Man Socks

Here they are! Or at least, here is the first part of the first one. I'm using Trekking XXL in color 71, which means Dark Blue. I'm working them on US 0's (2.0 mm) because I think Trekking is a finer, squishier fingering weight yarn and the 0's give me a nice fabric. They also give me 9 stitches to the inch which means the legs are 96 stitches around. I'll decrease to 88 stitches on the foot to give a little bit of negative ease because I prefer a sock that fits snugly on the foot - I think it goes into a shoe better that way. These started out with a simple K2, P2 rib and now I'm just working in Stockinette - around and around and around. You really can't ask for anything more perfect for public knitting, I mean I can knit and talk to people and don't have to count or anything. The only thing I have to do is to remember to click the round counter every time I finish a round. (My sock knitting lives and dies by the round counter, without it I'd have different sized socks within each pair. I use a Mini Kacha Kacha because they lock and I can hang them around my neck.) In the photo above, the stripe looks like it's zig-zagging a bit, but that's just the way it's sitting - there is no actual zig zag, just stockinette.

In the comments yesterday, Sheri asked about the time involved with making Man Socks and mentioned that her husband and son have size 13 and 15 feet, respectively. First of all, my apologies on the size of Man Socks that you're facing. Perhaps we should all raise our DPN's in a knitterly gesture of encouragement for Sheri. Mickael's feet are 11 wides, so I'm really getting off easy when you compare them. As far as making socks for feet of this magnitude, there are a couple of things you can do to make your life easier. You mentioned that you live in Georgia, which is very cold and snowy/icy right now, but that's not exactly normal and by the end of February, things will be starting to warm up. Realistically speaking, the men in your life can't possibly expect these socks immediately, just because of the square footage of knitting involved. So the earliest that these socks could possibly be both finished and needed would be around December, right? This means you should be able to pace yourself and still get them done by the time the temperatures drop for next Winter - no point in knitting until your fingers bleed, it will be warmer by the time you get the socks finished. For Sheri and anyone facing socks this big, I would suggest picking a pattern that you can easily memorize. Most men like simple socks, so whether it's a plain vanilla stockinette sock, a ribbed sock, a waffle sock, or even the Yarn Harlot's Earl Gray socks (scroll down to August 30 for the pattern), pick something that your men will enjoy and that won't make you want to bury the sock in backyard and pretend it never happened. Make sure you've double checked gauge and actual foot size before you start - you don't want to knit these twice! The other thing you can do to make your life easier is go with a heavier fingering weight yarn (you could even go to sport weight or heavier, but fingering really fits into shoes better than the larger sizes), take a look at Socks That Rock Mediumweight - you can work at 7 stitches to the inch and they still fit in shoes. I'm sure there are other yarns that will work, but that's all I've got with the low level of caffeine in my blood right now. STR isn't a cheap sock yarn, but if you make your son and husband matching socks, or just match the yarn and do two different patterns, three skeins should make two pairs of ginormous man socks for you. Good luck on your journey!