Cascading leaves is my go-to sock knitting pattern. The sock was designed by Jeanie Townsend. I used 8 repeats on the cuff of the sock. The foot was knit to 8 1/2 inches before the toe decrease. My daughter, KC, who these were made for wears a size 9 USA shoe. This means the sock should measure 10 inches when complete for a good fit. I used knit Picks Hawthorne Fingering in the colorway Fremont. Hawthorne is 80% Superwash Fine Highland Wool and 20% Polyamide. Each skein is 357 yards/100 grams of Fingering Weight yarn. 7-8 sts=1″. This yarn is great for socks because it’s machine wash gentle/tumble dry low.

KC is a very busy single mother. She works long hours for the United States Postal Service. Between long hours and caring for a young daughter, she doesn’t need socks she has to fuss with. I like to knit her socks because she has a severe allergy to latex. Most commercially made socks today have latex or elastic which also has latex in it. When she wears them she gets burns wherever they touch. That doesn’t work when you walk 10 miles a day in the rain, snow, or very hot weather to deliver the mail. (She doesn’t wear these socks to deliver the mail, they don’t go with the uniform!)

KC also has very long beautiful hair. So I thought I would make her something to hold her hair in when she wears the socks! I used a covered goody ponytail holder and then added the yarn to decorate it and protect her from the elastic in the holder. How I did it was very simple. I single-crocheted 45 stitches around the holder. (next time I will add more, it didn’t cover as I wanted.) and join to the first stitch with a slip stitch.

2nd row, I chained two and then doubled crochet in each stitch around and join to the first stitch with a slip stitch.

3rd row – chain 2 then 4 double crochet in the same stitch, skip the next stitch, slip stitch in the next stitch, then 5 double crochet in the next stitch around, joining with the slip stitch to the first stitch. Then weave in the ends of yarn and you are done. I hope she likes them. But we won’t know until December, as I am getting a head start on Christmas gifts so I’m not knitting like crazy in November and December.