birthday socks

Sorry for the relative blog-silence, but I've got a good reason: my dad's birthday is today, and he happens to be one of those non-knitters who really and truly appreciates a hand-knit gift. That might have something to do with the fact that he's been married to my mother for more than 30 years, and she is quite the hand-crafter herself, though my dad is a DIYer in his own right. He's done some beautiful woodworking, and I remember him taking on a lot of home improvement projects when I was a kid. In fact, I assumed that all adults just somehow knew how to do things like put up drywall, wire a new outlet, and install ceiling fans. (I'm afraid that particular quality didn't end up in my genetic make-up. Unfortunately for me and Stu, we are equally inept at such things.)

The man appreciates good hand work, is what I'm saying. So I took a couple weeks off from the other projects I had going to make him a pair of socks.



I won't knit just any man a pair of socks, you see. Knitting a pair of socks is a time investment anyway, and knitting a pair of socks for a grown man takes that much extra.



The yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy. I splurged and bought 2 skeins to make sure there was enough. I don't regret it, either, because it is soft and gorgeous and getting the extra means there is plenty leftover to make myself a pair.
The pattern: A vintage find from my friend Judy, who is in her 70s and once shared some decades-old Vogue Knitting magazines with our knitting group. She generously let us borrow them long enough to copy the patterns we liked, and one of the designs I liked was a collection of sock patterns for the whole family.
Modifications: I only followed the pattern for about half the cuff. I didn't read the whole thing pattern starting (yeah, I know), and it was only after I was several inches along that I realized it called for a 13" cuff and required so many calf decreases it would have been far too tight for a man's foot. So I quit decreasing early and winged the rest. Let's hope they fit; dad received the socks today and says he likes them, but I don't think he's tried them on yet, so the jury's still out!

By the by, my dad shares a birthday with Shakespeare, so why don't I slap another poem on this post before National Poetry Month is done?

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.