My Grandma

My Grandma is a difficult woman.  I try to be patient with her and remember that she's a product of a very different time and a very different upbringing.  My Grandma wants to tell everyone what everyone else's problem is and exactly the path they should take to fix it.  Needless to say, my Grandma's 1940s Catholic ideals are slightly different from my own... At the same time, she's my Grandma and I love her and I feel like I should do nice things for her.  A few weeks ago, my Grandma called me asking for some wool house socks.  These are the result:





These are the faceted rib socks by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott from the Little Box of Socks.  I love those little cards, they're so easy to pop in my purse and carry around.  The pattern creates a very dense fabric.  Even though these are made with standard sock-weight yarn, I don't think they would fit in any ordinary pair of shoes because they are so thick.  All the better since they are meant to be house socks.  Also, the pattern takes a lot of stitches because it doesn't have a lot of stretch so it eats yarn.  I had 380 yards and, as you can see, I had to result to "complementary" yarn for the toes.



The main color yarn is Pico Accuardi Dyeworks La Libera in colorway Hyperspanner (I don't know how long that link will be good for, I think the company is closing down, which is too bad because it's pretty good yarn).  The yarn is slightly thick in some places but it has a nice tight ply and a good sproing.



The toes are some Knit Picks Special Buy Sport Wool in colorway Amethyst Heather  that I ordered long ago and haven't found a use for yet.  Its yarn that was over-spun so they sold it for $1 per ball.  I ordred a bunch of it, but haven't really used it until now.  It's very tightly spun and feels dense the way that hand spun yarn often does.  Even though it's sport weight, I don't notice much of a difference between the toe and the rest of the sock.



Grandma won't like them.  She finds fault with everything.  The color will be wrong, or the fit, or the pattern... something.  Of course, if I didn't make them, then I'd be un-loving and mean to an 85-year-old woman and I'd never hear the end of that earlier.  So, I'm just going to package them up, send them off with a nice card, then refuse to take any calls from Grandma for at least a month... You know, like an adult.