Pleated ballet slippers to keep Miss Cultured Purl's feet warm

Comfy Socks for Muh Man became fingerless mittens for Designer Zazu

I was knitting projects away for friends, friend's babies, my sister, myself when it hit me that not only have made nothing for muh man, I havent even offered or asked if there was something he might like me to make for him...










So, in an attempt to rectify my oversight, I asked him if there was something he would like me to make for him. When his first response was, 
"Pumpkin Hat", I had to take a deep breath and remind him that that hat is really for children and as much as I love him Im not so sure I would be willing to step out in public with him sporting a pumpkin hat. So, instead he settled for a pair of socks.


He loves to wear socks around the house to keep his feet warm when it is cold outside. So, I wanted to make him a pair. I found a simple ribbed pattern for socks since he didnt want anything fancy with cabling or any other patterns as such. I bought 2 skeins of lovely red yarn in Shibui sock yarn (my current favorite!). I started on the ribbed sock and soon got bored of the way it was looking. It looks so blah. So, I ripped out the sock and neatly packed it into a ball and threw it in my yarn stash.

In the meantime, Designer Zazu (my older, extremely talented sister) came to visit me. I promised to knit her a pair of fingerless mittens. We made a trip to the store and she meticulously picked out this gorgeous Shibui sock weight pink yarn, which shades towards orange. It was a difficult yarn and color pick since there were many other deserving contenders. When we came home, I added the yarn to my yarn stash as I helped clean the apartment.

Designer Zazu was leaving in 3 days - so I had to put muh man's socks on hold. I feverishly started knitting her fingerless mittens - which turned out really cute. After knitting both pairs, she put them on and while we were admiring how cute they were, she commented that she thought that the yarn she picked was more on the pinkish-orange side where as, the gloves now looked more reddish. So, we decided to look at the gloves in the sunlight - still looked pretty red. Unable to explain why the yarn now looked red instead of pink, we both settled for the idea that perhaps the lighting in the store was just simply misleading.

Muh man entered the scene, admired the fingerless gloves just for long enough to remind me that he was still waiting for his socks. Excited about the idea of a new knitting project, I eagerly looked in my yarn stash to show Designer Zazu the yarn I planned on making his socks with. And there in the stash, sat a sarcastic, perfectly pink shading into yellow skein of Shibui fingering weight yarn. Doh!! I missed up the balls of yarn. So not only did I end up making red gloves for Designer Zazu, but now I was left with pink yarn to make manly socks for muh man. All that was left to do was laugh at my clumsiness!

Seeing my frustration, muh man sweetly agreed to wearing pink socks. Perhaps he was afraid that he would never ever get these much promised socks. So, I decided to spare him of the pink and purchased some wasabi green Shibui sock yarn. He wanted simple, ribbed socks - but from my previous trial - I really didnt like the way ribbing was looking - and it can get really boring. So, I found a sock pattern with a rib stitch with a twist - the seed stitch!

I made the first pair of socks with great enthusiasm. It was my first pair after all. It fit him quite well when he tried it on and he was pleased with the way it fit. He loves to wear the socks along with his "russian pants" that have elastic give around the waist and calls it "comfy time", hence the name. So, it was time to make the second sock to complete the pair and I kid you not, this pair took double the time the first pair took to knit. I could have sworn
that his second foot miraculously grew much larger than the first one. Ofcourse that wasnt the case, but I was glad to be done with both socks because it was time to move on to the next!

For more technical knitting information check out my ravelry page