We're definitely in the waning time of year again. Here up in Northwestern Montana there's been a cold snap that's left us with a good layer of snow and temperatures down in the single digits. Brr! With the early onset of winter I've been appreciating my woolen wardrobe all the more, the socks in particular are key to my coziness when the weather turns.
This being nearly Samhain/ Halloween, I thought I'd share my most recent knitting finish for myself and recommend the free pattern on to any of you who are also spider lovers like myself. Presenting Spider Socks, by Terri Knight: (warning - this link leads to Ravelry - apologies to any readers who can no longer use their site due to the update. I haven't found the pattern hosted elsewhere.)
How could I resist? These have been a longer term project for me, I've knit them only in October for the past two years. It seemed fitting. These are now my official spinning socks. The baby spiders on the arch of the foot have bobbles for butts, and I'm not sure how well they'd wear in shoes. Perhaps if you had a longer foot you could get away with wearing them with open topped shoes. My feet are truly tiny.
This pattern is written to be knit cuff down, and magic loop style. I used size US size 1 needles instead of the recommended 1 1/2. I like my socks on the sturdy side and as mentioned above, I have tiny feet so I wasn't worried about the gauge change. My favorites for knitting socks are Chiagoos, the cable is super flexible and they're on the pointier side, which I prefer especially on any patterns that involve cable stitches.
I knit most of the pattern as written, except the toe - the original pattern has you stop your purl stitches all on one row so you end up with a sudden straight line of knit stitches, I chose instead to slowly decrease them one each side with each passing row instead, so I ended up with a gradual point instead of all knit stitches for that.
The pattern is a longer one - because Terri Knight has given you the option of knitting the larger spider from both written out instructions row for row, or a chart towards the end of the pattern, so don't be intimidated by the length of it. I would rate these as advanced-intermediate level knitting for socks. If you decide to knit a pair up please do track me down on social media and share, I'd love to see other versions of these, and am always happy to chat about patterns I've knit up.
I'm off to choose my next spider knitting project to continue my October tradition. Feel free to pass along any recommendations, and happy knitting!
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