Days 4 and 5: Sock Roses!

Sorry for the lag around here. I did write this weekend but decided it wasn't something I wanted to share. I have something else instead to cover Saturday and Sunday instead: arts and crafts! Lots of folks are posting DIY projects on the old interwebs these days and I thought, shoot, I did one of those recently. Let's share it!

This was a Valentine's Day gift for my lovely and talented fiancee. To give you an idea of how seriously she takes that most romantic of holidays I'll simply mention that she hosted a zombie movie party this past February 14. Her seventh in a row. Since she shows no inclination to stop any time soon I let last year's VD pass without any fuss. She also works in an office environment that allows no outside plants, so the classic dozen roses at work seemed to be out of the equation. Still, I knew any kind of gift for Valentine's would be a surprise, and she did need good hiking socks in a bad way. Thus was born an idea.



Socks were easy to come by, courtesy of REI's winter clearance sale. I picked up an even dozen in assorted lengths and weights to accommodate a wide variety of activities. Easy enough so far.



Next I picked up a dozen dowels and a green magic marker. I did my best to give the dowels some grain, which isn't really something you see on roses but did make more sense than any other coloring pattern for the stems.



An even dozen done and drying on a pair of their unadorned peers.



Next I colored a sheet of paper with a herring bone pattern and added some veins(?) for the leaves.



I cut out little ovals and the leaves began to take shape...



...and voilà! A rose leaf!



Next, I laid a dowel across the toe of a sock and began to roll it tightly. I found I had to fold the heel in as I followed the roll around the curve of the hosiery.



Once the roll was complete I fastened it with a straight pin.




The process worked exactly the same for shorter socks.



Now a simply matter of adding a paper clip, tightly wound about the stem, and some tape to affix the leaves...



...and they're done! I think the longer socks actually made a much nicer finished product.



A few more examples



And that's that. To disguise the paucity of my mason jar vase I added a paper lining, complete with middle school valentine "Sock It To Me, Valentine!" text. All in all it was a fun, surprisingly simple project that came out shockingly close to how I had imagined it would in my head. I managed to come out of it feeling not only like I had subverted the corporate holiday culture but also pulled off something reasonably thoughtful and romantic. Feel free to follow along and make your own cold-footed friend a little something special next time you're feeling adventurous!