A while ago I made some socks for my boss. He seemed like he wasn’t enjoying work, gave me a gift at Christmas and it’s his birthday on 2nd January. All in, hand knitted socks seemed like a good idea.

They went down very well, to the point where immediately started saying things like “Clare really likes pink” and “comfy socks would be lovely – she does a lot of standing up for her work”.

I took the hint.

I had trouble finding pink sock yarn the “same” as the yarn I’d used for Paul’s socks. Admittedly I looked in my LYS who stock loads of lovely sock yarn, just not pink, and John Lewis in the Trafford Centre, who don’t stock sock yarn, but still. Disappointing.

I mentioned this to my enabling friend, who promptly sent me a skein of very, very lovely pink sock yarn, but by then I’d caved & bought some DK pink fair isle yarn from knit-wise. It’s one of the side-effects of going to knit night. It’s rare that it just costs the £3 entrance fee…

I picked up the yarn because it had several shades of pink in it, and in spite of it saying so on the label, it was still a surprise when it came out with a fair isle pattern. You just can’t get the staff.

I used Kalajoki, which presents a nice small amount of challenge and not too much stitch pattern to interfere with the patterned yarn – also the streak of ribbing holds the socks in nice & snug and gives some flexibility. I had to take back some rows on the second sock as I wasn’t really paying attention, it turns out, but otherwise these were straightforward.

If Paul’s reaction was anything to go by, Clare will be very pleased with them. Unless she thinks it’s creepy that one of her husband’s reports is making her socks, in which case, this could be the worst career move evah…