All Grown Up

Back in 2010, I crocheted socks for each of my female friends and family members. I was SO thrilled, and I thought they were the best gifts I'd ever given. Not only did I love crocheting socks, but who else had ever done such a cool thing???

Some of the recipients loved the gift. Some never said whether they liked their socks. A couple told me they were allergic to wool and never said thank you or anything appreciative. (That happens to most quilt-givers at least once, too.) One recipient told me her daughter quickly adopted her socks and asked if I might make one more pair... (Of course I would!!! And I did!!!)

I liked making socks SO much, I began making baby socks. One co-worker asked if I could make baby socks for her dog to wear in winter. I thought about all the quilts (including one I made) that wound up on the floor as a sleeping pad for a beloved dog. It wasn't my idea of how such a treasured gift should be used, but I tried to remember how much my mom has always loved her dog(s). The "child" who never talks back, who never sneaks out the window in the middle of the night, who never wrecks the car and who never runs up a $200 phone bill (LONG before cell phones).

I think I listed three pairs of handmade adult socks in my Etsy shop over the years. (My Etsy shop has been paused since Lizard's December 2019 total knee replacement because I have been so overwhelmed as a Parkinson's caregiver ever since.) (But I hope to re-stock and re-open my Etsy shop this summer...) But who wants to spend $30 (the cost of wool fingering at the time) for a pair of socks when you can get affordable footwear at Target and Walmart and you can get wool socks for $18ish at REI? To date, I've sold only baby socks (and four baby socks for a dog).

I designed a fingerless glove pattern to match my sock pattern. Both patterns were designed to match my hat pattern. I began making matched sets for Etsy and my annual office Christmas craft fair. (I also designed a key chain, cowl, phone cozy and even a snowflake to match...)

Again, I don't think I ever sold any of the sets. I did break up a lot of the sets, though, because buyers wanted only the fingerless gloves or only the hat. I tried to replenish the missing itens as I was able to replace the fingering yarn I'd used for each broken set.

I think most of the sets were given away as gifts after several years of no sales. No complaints. I got no complaints for these gifts. Perhaps I've become more selective in who gets handmade gifts from me... Ha ha ha!

One of the now-grown girls I taught way back during my sock days recently announced she will be serving a church mission in Finland. In two weeks!!! Her mother was looking for wool items to send along. I did NOT have enough time to make another set!!!

I kept thinking I might have at least one pair of adult socks left. They took a while to find because I haven't tried to sell any of my creations in the last five years except for a neighborhood craft fair back in December of 2022. (The reason I didn't try to do the 2023 neighborhood craft fair is I didn't sell anything but quilted table toppers and a couple of crocheted snowflakes at the first one. Definitely not worth leaving Lizard alone that long.)

I found the final pair of adult socks and was surprised to find a matching hat... complete with crocheted flowers I'd intended to sew onto the hat before listing it on Etsy. I never finished the embellishments because I couldn't find yarn to re-make the fingerless gloves (or the full-finger gloves!!!) that had sold at my last office craft fair back in about 2017.

I quickly attached the flowers and wrapped the set in snowflake wrapping paper. My gorgeous hat and socks are now on their way to Finland!

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