The Oliver sock pattern was such a hit with my husband that the boys caught his enthusiasm. Last Thanksgiving week, I found myself stranded in Ohio with no access to a local yarn shop (it was closed.) Facing a nine-hour drive back to North Carolina sans knitting, I called my sister the day before Thanksgiving, and she agreed to bring over a ball of sock yarn on Thanksgiving so I could work on some plain-Jane socks on the way back home.

I should have anticipated what happened next. After the wonderful chaos that was Thanksgiving, I sat down and was offered not a skein of yarn but a traveling yarn shop to choose from. Both of my boys chose sock yarn from Aunt Karen’s magic bag of yarn and I cast on for these Ollies during the trip. Thanks, Karen!

The yarn has a short repeat, so it was relatively easy to try and match the stripes. The matching came out better than I anticipated – right down to having the heel turn in all blue on each sock! The socks weigh 50g, but I did dip into the second skein of yarn, so buy two if you’re going to do 9 year old kid-socks in this yarn! The first skein made it through one sock and the cuff of the second. There was a little left over, but I thought it was a good place to match stripes for the rest of the second sock.

I am currently working on my third pair of Ollies, which is rather unheard of. I’m not sure I’ve ever knit three of one thing in a row before, let alone six of them. Details are below, as usual. I’ve included changes for whittling down the Oliver to a child’s size.

I wish you and yours a very happy 2010.

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