"Get a Job, with Love from your Wife" Socks

When a knitter's husband loses his job at a particularly bad time for both the year and the economic cycle, what does the knitter think she needs to do to make sure he finds another one?

She starts a pair of socks for him, of course!

I know, I know, the world does not make decisions based on whether John has a new pair of socks, but to give myself something more positive to think about, I convinced myself that if John had a lovely new pair of socks to start a new job with, certainly the job would come.  Of course, they couldn't be just any pair of socks, there had to be some more challenging element about them to reflect both the challenge John faced looking for a job, and the supportive sentiments that I had for him.  At the same time, being man socks, they had to conform to John's standards for socks as well, so the design couldn't be too complicated, and the yarn couldn't be too out there.  The yarn also needed to be thick enough to keep John's feet warm during his downtown winter commute.

The yarn was the easy part!  It's Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks that Rock Heavyweight in "Thraven" -- just about as perfect a yarn as you could ask for as far as this project and John and the knitter are concerned.  The yarn is thick and warm, the colorway is subtle but still lovely and engaging. 

For the pattern, I decided to stay simple.  It's a toe-up stockinette sock until it gets past the heel, and then on each side of the sock there's an X and O cable -- my way of sending hugs and kisses along with him to work in a subtle way, since the element isn't very visible from the front or back of the sock.  To account for the extra stitches taken up by the cabling and to shape the sock better to John's calf, there are also two increase rows, one at the start of the pattern and one at the midway point (STR Heavyweight is pretty bulky for a sock yarn so it doesn't take many extra stitches to give you reasonable increases in circumference).  The cuff is about 2" of K2 P2 ribbing, placed so as to make the top of the cable look a little as if it is extending into the ribbing.

The socks have actually been finished for a little while now, but I decided I couldn't do a reveal until John actually accepted an offer. Yesterday that happy moment finally came (we found out he was going to get an offer for one of the jobs he was really interested last week, but it took almost a week for all the details to get nailed down) so the socks get to make their appearance.

I wouldn't let him wear the socks until the offer was almost certain. In typical, very sweet John fashion, he played along and once he got "permission" to put the socks on, they have been on ever since.   I think it's fair to say that he doesn't mind the cables, and he finds the coloration of the socks subtle enough not to be worried about the prying eyes of the sock police. 

So he's happy that he has a warm pair of socks that actually go with dress pants and I'm happy because there's a special little detail that I know is there, even if no one else does.  Definitely a successful pair of socks -- in more ways than one!

I love you, babe! I know you're going to rock the new job! I'm so excited for you!