Sometime at the end of last year I was with a group of people talking about hobbies and I said I like to crochet.  Someone else said they did too and they were making a pair of socks and I impressed on the group that this person was clearly very good, as making two things that were totally identical was really hard; I’d tried, but never managed it.  Another person in the group grabbed hold of this fact and spent a fair bit of time over the duration of the get together coming back to the fact that I couldn’t make two things that matched.  It was a bit weird.  And really pissed me off.

I’m not bad at crochet.  I taught myself quite a few years ago and have crocheted everything from plain squares to hats to jumpers to toys to the toppers on my wedding cake.  I had tried to make a pair of slippers for my nephew once though and they had gone very, very wrong.  And on one of my jumpers one arm is a row or two longer than the other, but you’d never notice… But it did make me wary of trying anything like socks, but like I say, this woman pissed me off so… Ta Dah:

I made me some socks.  I worked out that they took around 40 hours to make.  So at minimum wage and without wool, they cost £407.20.  The only item of clothing I have ever bought that cost more than that is my wedding dress.  But two fingers to that lady…I had done it.  And was never going to do it again.

Until we went to Cornwall and I thought it would be a lovely thing to make some for Mr R.  And obviously the second pair would not take as long as the first, would they?

They did.

But they match each other too!

And they match mine:

And we now have his and hers socks.  Which and cosy and soft and lovely and both of us are too scared to wear as their combined value is over £800…

But don’t worry!  I have another pattern I am working on (I’m making this one up though, so who knows what will happen with it), and it makes me giggle every time I think of the (planned) end result.  You’ll have to wait a while to see photos of that though…hopefully it wont take as long as the socks :o)