New Sock Pattern: Collin Sox for Knit 1 Chicago

Although it's been a full year since we moved from Chicago, I still have strong yarny ties to the city that was our home for over a decade. Largely, I have the good people at Knit 1 to thank for this - their daily Instagram Live videos are my main connection to the yarn world now that I've left the fiber arts industry, professionally speaking. Their Instagram Garage Sale account has tempted me far too many times, despite my legitimate SABLE* concerns. Last November, they launched the brilliant Sock Pals program and used one of my patterns for the inaugural KAL. It was so much fun that I've participated in every Sock Pals KAL ever since!

So I was thrilled to contribute a new sock pattern to their Designer Subscription Box series for 2021, which features some fabulous designs from fabulous people using Knit 1's exclusive fabulous yarns (the key word here being FABULOUS). And, 10% of each subscription box is donated to a charity chosen by the designer. 

When we started talking about this project last year, it had only been a few months since my cousin Collin took his life. As the pandemic raged, it seemed like we would never get a chance to hold a memorial service to honor him - and in fact, it wasn't until the end of May that some of our vaccinated friends and family were able to gather, so for over a year we were all in grief limbo. Losing a loved one suddenly is already a surreal experience. Losing them during a pandemic, well...there's just no rule book for that, is there? 

This seemed like a good opportunity to put some of that grief towards something positive: designing a sock to honor Collin's memory. 10% of sales will be donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a non-profit which has a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator. A high rating means that they are super-transparent about how the money they raise is spent, with the majority of funds going towards programming (82.3%, to be exact). Not only do they fund research, education and advocacy in order to understand and prevent suicide, they also have campaigns to help at-risk people as well as those impacted by suicide. 

More About Collin Sox

Pattern is written for 3 adult sizes (small, medium and large) with finished cuffs measuring 7 (8, 9) inches. 

You'll need 1 skein of Knit 1 No. Series Yarn (included in the box) to make your choice of size options.

These socks were designed to honor my cousin Collin, who took his life in March of 2020. He was a talented artist from a very young age, and would spend hours drawing dinosaurs, comic book characters, and his favorite exotic cars with incredible detail. After high school, he attended Wyotech, an auto mechanic training college with airplane hangars full of cars he could take apart and put back together (a true car lover’s paradise!). This led to an incredible opportunity to work on high-end exotic and luxury cars, where he installed custom performance enhancements (he even developed his own turbo enhancement for Porsche!). Translating his talents and passions into a sock design is a pretty tall order, but my goal was to choose a few elements to work into a simple design that he would have loved: the twisted cables make me think of tire treads, and the diagonal purl stitch panel echoes some of his later graphic design work, plus it makes me think of racing stripes! These socks knit up quickly and you can even work your twisted cables without using a cable needle if you dare.

You can sign up for the entire series or purchase individual designer boxes here on the Knit 1 Chicago website.

UPDATE: Sadly, Knit 1 will be closing this doors at the end of 2021; you can now purchase PDF copies of this pattern here in my Ravelry store.

*SABLE = Stash Beyond Life Expectancy