a project that I have completed in July is two sort of sets for two very young girls who volunteered to become soldiers this past winter. They were referred by the recruiting command to serve under one of my friends. One of them is 18, another is 19. I have a deep respect for their decision, but as the same time my heart bleeds when I think about these children who face taking such decisions and so early in their lives. So, I did the only thing I could think of. I’ve knit them socks, hats and fingerless mittens.

the socks are vanilla socks from the Tuffy yarn, very simple cuff-down, heel flap and gusset socks. The only thing I do differently with such kind of sock is actual heel. I use square, or Dutch, sock heel, which produces square, rectangular heel. This is the first technique for sock heel knitting I’ve learnt when I was just learning the knitting basics at the classes I’ve attended back in Ukraine.

the yarn I’ve used is Briggs & Little Tuffy. It’s a really thick, worsted weight, 2 ply sock yarn, 80% wool and 20% nylon. The recommended needle for this yarn is 5 mm but I used 4 mm needles. I like the sturdiness of the socks from this yarn, and I really like the colors, which are not solid but heather, so they look really nice in the vanilla socks. Unfortunately, my hands get very-very tired knitting with this yarn.

and here are hats. The pattern is Morning Coffee by YaYa Lovestoknit, available on Ravelry, free of charge. I love this pattern, it is very simple and nice looking. The only thing I’ve changed is I added a folded brim, for the sake of warmth.

the yarn is Drops Nord sock yarn, color 19, forest green. It’s fingering weight, 45% alpaca, 30% polyamide and 25% wool. My photos don’t capture the true color. I love this yarn, and have knit a few projects from it before. It is soft, even against my very sensitive skin, and very-very warm. In spite of its content, it is recommended to hand wash it only, which is a problem, of course, due to the purpose of the hats, but I am fully ready to write in the care instructions that they are to be thrown away, when the owners are done with them.

the fingerless mitts to go with the hats are a very basic pattern, Fantastic Fingerless Mittens by STASH Lounge. It does not give gauge or precise measurements, so I used it rather as a recipe and adapted to the yarn and my hand size, which is very easy to do with this pattern. I used myself as a model, since obviously I have no way to know the hand sizes of those two girls. Their shoe size is the same as mine, so I hope their hands are similar to mine, too.

as for my works in progress, I have three of them, all at different stages. I need to knit three more pairs of socks from Tuffy, and I have one sock so far. It should be US men size 12, but it looks immense… So I am looking for someone with that shoe size to try it on. I have also started knitting the Swirl E socks and have already knit the sample for a project rather challenging for me – a raglan for one of those three friends. But that’s a talk for another time.