Safiyyah Talley - Knit 2 Socks in 1: Discover the Easy Magic of Turning One Long Sock into a Pair! Choose from 21 Original Designs, in All Sizes

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Edited by Deborah Balmuth and Mia Lumsden

Book design by woolypear

Art direction by Carolyn Eckert

Tech edited by Kate Atherley

Indexed by Eileen Clawson

Photography by Kendra Lynece

Illustrations by Alison Kolesar, except by Ilona Sherratt Storey Publishing, LLC

Photography by Kendra Lynece, front cover l., back cover b., iv, viii,

Additional photography by Mars Vilaubi Storey Publishing, LLC, front cover t.r. & b.r., back cover t. (all), vi, vii, x,

Text 2022 by Safiyyah Talley

Ebook production by Slavica A. Walzl

Ebook version 1.0

March 1, 2022

Foot size table reprinted with permission from Custom Socks: Knit to Fit Your Feet by Kate Atherley (Interweave Press, 2014).

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my loving husband, Jake, and our beautiful son, Beau. Thank you, Jake, for supporting me in all of my endeavors. And of course, thank you, Beau, for reminding me to take breaks to play!

For some, even the most seasoned knitters, hand-knitting a pair of socks is a cast on too far. Mass-produced fashion constantly encourages us to throw away even the smallest of items, so why bother to make socks at all? Because theres something special about a pair of hand-knit socks. They are little miracles of engineering, even more so traditionally knitted ones. Because once youve formed the cuff, worked the leg, and conquered the turning of that heel, youre on the home straight to the toes, and youre done.

That is, until you have to repeat the whole process for sock number two, and this is where many knitters give up. So, just like machine-made socks that inevitably lose a partner in the washing machine (and who hasnt experienced that?), the process of hand-knitting socks has its perils when second sock syndrome strikes.

Safiyyah Talleys intriguing method of knitting both socks at the same time does away with the looming threat of second sock syndrome. No second cast on, no wondering if theres enough of your precious single skein of hand-dyed yarn, and best of all, no guilt over the pair of socks that never was.

I first became aware of Safiyyah back in the summer of 2018. At the time, there were many discussions on social media about the lack of diversity in the fiber community. I was writing about those conversations from my particular perspective as a Black designer and discovered Safiyyah while researching BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) working with fiber.

The name of her blog, The Drunk Knitter, appealed to my sense of humor, but I was also drawn to her creative approach. Her desire to lead a slow, sustainable life with her beloved family in the Indiana countryside is central to who she is and, by extension, what she designs. I found that both inspiring and refreshing.

We first worked together on Warm Hands, a collection of glove and mitten designs I coedited with Kate Davies. As one of the books 15 contributing designers, Safiyyahthrough her Heartland Marsh mittensspeaks to the importance of her rural environment. In celebrating the wetlands of Indiana, she conjured up the essence of her local landscape so beautifully that despite having never met her in person, I felt I came to know more about Safiyyah through that design. Now, two years on from that collaboration, Im excited to contribute this foreword to her first book.

Without the need for turning heels or picking up gusset stitches, Safiyyahs Two-Socks-in-One method really is the easiest way of knitting two socks simultaneously. Because the patterns are more intuitive than prescriptive, this playful take on making socks is sure to inspire a new, younger generation of sock knitters. See it as an adventure to be embarked upon, then explored, rather than a daunting task to endure, then possibly abandon. No fiber is off-limits, and any weight is fair game for transformation. Your next favorite pair of socks awaits, so whether youre a Magic Loop fan or a double-pointed needle diehard, pick up your needles and let the adventure begin!

Jeanette Sloan

Designer, author, and founder of BIPOC in Fiber

Picture this: You would like to knit a pair of socks, but you dislike knitting the same thing twice. And, if youre anything like me, you may worry that by the time you finish your second sock, your first one is lost wherever missing socks end up.

When I first started teaching sock knitting, I was already a superfan of knitting two socks at the same time from the toe up using the Magic Loop method. But many of my students found that trying to learn new skills while keeping two balls of yarn from becoming a tangled vortex of wool and needles can be a daunting processeven for experienced knitters. One of my most memorable knitting students, who traveled all the way from Australia to New York, very eloquently described the method as fiddly.