Rose & Thorn Socks by Ronni Smith

Rose & Thorn Socks

Knitting
March 2016
Fingering (14 wpi) ?
8 stitches and 11.5 rows = 1 inch
in stockinette
US 1 - 2.25 mm
US 1½ - 2.5 mm
350 - 400 yards (320 - 366 m)
medium & large
Flag of English English

Sock Madness 10 Round 2 pattern

My maternal grandmother taught me to knit. She and my mother were both very fond of roses. My grandmother might even have qualified as obsessed (bedspread, towels, teacups and knitting bag all covered in roses). Just like roses, both my mother and my grandmother had their thorns. As does all life. I designed these socks during a time when my mother was in failing health. And so they have both Rose Buds of lace and Thorn Twist cables and are topped by thorn picots as a reminder that roses have thorns (with beads below the picots for those little drops of blood when one has been pricked by a thorn) and that life gives us both beauty and pain, the former well worth the latter.

There are videos for the tricky parts of the sock.

The beginning of the beaded double cast on is shown here:
https://youtu.be/QkZhKevdmIs

Joining to knit in the round after you have cast on all your stitches is shown here:
https://youtu.be/7og-YrUqk_I

Folding the hem and weaving in the free end is explained here:
https://youtu.be/NtXhWVr9mj0

Returning an escaped bead to its proper place is shown here:
https://youtu.be/_UCx-pu-bJI

Hem join and first round is shown here:
https://youtu.be/O2kE0mU5y_U

Clearer hem join and first round video is available here:
https://youtu.be/O2kE0mU5y_U