My grandmother was an avid knitter. I remember receiving handmade sweaters for birthdays and Christmas when I was little. More than anything else though, I remember her knitting socks. The same socks every time. So many that there are family stories about entire garbage bags full of homemade socks.

My grandmother passed away when I was 17. I only learned how to knit a year and a half ago, and am a little bummed that I never learned from her while I had the chance. Sadly, when she passed away we didn’t keep any of her knitting supplies (although it was really just a few pairs of needles). She had been knitting her socks for so long that she no longer needed a pattern, so when she died the sock pattern died with her. In fact, we’re not even sure if there was ever a pattern to begin with!

This past year as a Christmas gift for my mom I found someone locally who was able to reverse engineer some of my surviving pairs of grandma’s socks into a written pattern. I wanted to post it online so that other people can enjoy these socks as well. And if other people knit them, a little part of my grandmother stays in the world.