$3500 Socks

Meet my new favourite socks (I made them!):

The pattern is "Retro Rib Socks" by Evelyn A. Clark and can be found in Favourite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave.

The yarn is Celestial Merino Dream (100% wool) by Tradewind Knitwear Designs. It is hand-dyed in Nova Scotia by Lucy Neatby. Colour is "Seashell". You may remember this yarn from such blogs as my trip to The Loop in Halifax this past August.

There's something about a hand-knit sock that's just soooooo much more comfortable than a store-bought sock. You may think I have yarn goggles on because I made these guys, but really, there's a surprising amount of difference in terms of comfort.

Those of you who know me know I love to knit. People sometimes ask me why I don't knit for a living. Although this *seems* like a good idea (see last post re: pumpkin template of myself) in reality the Free Market (and repetitive stress disorder) make a knitting career prohibitive.

Let's do some math! I know, you were informed this was a math-free blog. I hear your pain, but stay with me here: Each sock takes about 10 hours to complete. So, at 20 hours for the labour (at my current articling rate) plus the costs of this yarn ($60) make these socks worth $3560. Dude! Even if I only charged $10/hour, the socks would still be $260.

I'm guessing most people would find this prohibitively expensive for sockwear... even for lovely artisan-quality sockwear.

Of course, knitting's not about the money (which is probably what makes it fun). I'm just sayin', I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon.