New Design: Open House Socks

Pattern available for purchase for $5.00 from Ravelry and Patternfish.

This design was inspired by a request from a home insurance agent who gets asked to take off her shoes at the door: she doesn't like padding around in customers' houses in bare feet in the summer so she wanted a small socky sort of thing she could keep in her purse.

The Open House Sock was the result.

Open House, too, as I think of the upcoming Holiday/High Holiday season, and all the dinners and events we attend. As the weather gets wet and snowy, I'll be leaving my shoes at the door and slipping these on to protect my hosiery, and keep my feet warm and stylish. (After all, come the fall, the pedicure isn't necessarily maintained with the same care, and I don't really want the extended family and guests to realize that I've only got polish on 8 of 10 toes.)

They'd also be great as travel slippers. Emergency gift, too.

And requiring less than 150m of sock yarn, they are a terrific way to use up leftovers. The sample was worked with Araucania Ranco because I had some leftovers in my stash, but any sock yarn will do. A single 100gm/350m skein was enough to make a pair of "real" socks, a pair of Open House socks, and there's still a bit leftover. ( I weighed them - 115m for the small size.)

They're also a first for me: they're worked from the toe-up! And the heel is a clever modification of the standard band heel: it's upside down, but still fits just as well.

Before I started this design, I did some research on what makes a good slipper/sockette. I did two things differently: the position of the strap, and the relatively high toe. The strap represents a significant improvement on many slipper patterns out there, in my opinion: the placement at the back of the heel keeps the sock from slipping off. And the relatively high toe is to provide some coverage and warmth.

I've been wearing them a fair bit already: I might need to make another pair or two for myself.