At 23 times the size of an average sock, it’s on pace to be the
world’s largest knitted sock. That is, with the help of some
Littleton knitters.
A Knitted Peace, at 5654 S. Prince St., is host to a giant sock
that has traveled the world on its way to creation. By the time it
is completed, the multicolored garment will have 1,500 stitches and
stretch 13-14 feet long.
“And we’re not making a second one,” said A Knitted Peace owner
Marsha Asheim.
The idea started in London in October 2006, when Joanna
Ratcliffe decided to have a charity knitting event for National
Knitting Week in the United Kingdom. Originally, the concept was to
create a giant circular knit, but days before the event, the focus
switched to completing a record-breaking sock.
Since then, the sock has taken up residence in Canada,
Rochester, N.Y. and Atlanta, where Joanne Conklin, an employee of A
Knitted Peace, first saw it.
“I was in Atlanta a year ago and walked in and they said, ‘Sit
down and knit,’” she said. She put her name on the waiting list to
be host to the Paul Bunyon-sized bootie, and months later the then
23-pound garment arrived in the mail.
Come Labor Day, it will leave Littleton and head to Alaska.
The record for the largest hand-knitted sock — 16.24 feet by
14.1 feet by 6.2 feet — is held by the Sheep Farmers Association of
Austria.
“The Austrians hold it, but they’re going down,” said Joanne
Conklin, an employee of A Knitted Peace.
More than 110 people have joined in the project in Littleton,
each knitting at least five stitches before placing their name in
an official log.
Dale Hibbon is one of those people.
The Littleton resident learned how to knit at a young age from
her grandmother, who was from Holland.
“She had those big needles and she would ‘click, click, click’
and keep talking,” Hibbon said.
The hobby has waxed and waned for Hibbon since then, but got
started up again when she discovered A Knitted Peace.
“Welcome back to our cult,” Conklin said with a laugh, as they
sat side-by-side, working on the sock.
“Knitting is fun,” Hibbon said. “It’s amazing to see what you
can make.”
The giant sock is not exactly an in-vogue creation, with
hundreds of colors woven together, including a few sparkly and
fuzzy yarns.
“I used some yarn the other day [and] I thought, ‘what was I
thinking when I bought this?’” Conklin said. “[The sock] has its
own style.”
And there is still time to add more personal touches. Even those
who have never knitted before are invited to learn the stitch and
sign the log.