I’m sure that everyone who knows my mother is aware that she broke her foot a while back. When I talked to her the other day, she seemed a little down and discouraged about it. She is tired of wearing one shoe everywhere and unhappy about missing prime golf weather. She also mentioned that on chilly days she has been wearing a cut-off sock toe on her broken foot, because she can’t put a whole sock on.
So, to cheer her up, I knit her one sock, plus a toe cover.
(Don’t you just love my “I bicycle everywhere in Birkenstocks” tan lines?)
This is the O’Socks pattern from The Sock Journal, which is published by HeartStrings Fiber Arts. Mom had pointed out that pattern and mentioned that she really liked it some time ago. Once I learned to cable without a cable needle, the pattern was a piece o’ cake. I subbed in a twisted rib cuff and eye of partridge heel, lengthened the heel flap slightly, adjusted the gusset pickups accordingly, and used my standard toe instead of the spiral toe suggested in the pattern.
I used some Louet Gems 100% merino sport weight sock yarn and size 2 needles for a 52-stitch sock that knit up a lightning speed – I cast on and had both the 
sock and toe cover finished in less than 24 hours.
This sock yarn is awesome. Mom was surprised to hear that the sock is made out of wool – it is that soft and comfy. The yarn is lofty and has fabulous stitch definition – the gusset decreases cut a truly sharp diagonal line, and the cables really “pop” out from the backround.
I used just slightly over half of one skein of yarn for the sock. I bought two skeins – I’ll make up the other sock in the next few days and mail it to Mom when she gets done with her “boot” and can wear two regular socks and shoes again. I’m thinking that if I buy a third skein, I could make a whole ‘nother pair of socks. I’d like to extend the cable pattern all the way down the top of the foot. I’ll have to adjust some stitch counts and maybe do some more tinkering, but it should be fun.
