A Fruit Sock

Yep, a fruit sock. I know, I know, I thought the same thing. I even let out an audible guffaw when I saw the first of a few apple cozy patterns on Ravelry. Then the practicality of the thing sunk in. No, it's purpose is not to keep my fruit warm like a certain man in my life assumed, it has a far more useful, and palatable application.










































I come from a family were it is common practice to grab a piece of fruit as one walks out the door. Said fruit is then stuffed into a pocket or bag or maybe just tossed on to the passenger seat of the car. One of two (or both) scenarios happens next.


1) It will sweat, creating a huge wet spot in the pocket, bag, or car seat. The fruit itself isn't really sweating ya know. Said fruit, having been in the refrigerator and/or air conditioned house, thusly possessing a much cooler surface temperature than the ambient air will cause the water vapor in the warmer air to condensate on it's surface. It's easier just to say it's sweating even though I actually got to use "thusly" in a sentence and that was kinda fun. :o)

2) Naked fruit attracts fuzz, lint, hair, gunk, and any manner of icky that might be hiding within pockets, bags, or on car seats...especially if it's sweating. Think about it, would you really toss a sandwich or a muffin in your pocket, bag, or car seat without a wrapping of some sort?? Would you eat a pbj that's been schelped around hither and yon without protection? I think not. I wouldn't.

So yeah, given these two reasons alone, I've have come full circle and now believe, with conviction, in the virtues of fruit socks. :o)

I made one of the patterns found on Ravelry and then of course came up with one of my own. I would need something that was a little bit more flexible when size is considered. Above is the same sock with a small orange, smaller than a tennis ball, and huge apple. I tend to think of apples of this size to be an apple-for-two, it weighs 14.75 oz, it has a 10.5 inch circumference and is 4.25 inches tall. It's a big apple. To accommodate this range I used ribbing.

The first two photos show the fruit sock with the predominately knit side facing and the last two show the fruit sock with the purl side facing. You can see more clearly how I graduated the ribbing and used it as a shaping tool. (it makes a nice design too)

I'm posting the pattern here for your personal enjoyment. I hope to have it up as a Ravelry download later but I want to make one more to double check my yardage. It doesn't seem right. I used two strands of Tofutsies to make the one above.
Tofutsies has 425m per 100 grams.
That's 4.25 m per gram.
The completed fruit sock weighs 17g.
Therefore
4.25 x 17=72.25m
72.25 divided by 2 = 36.12m Really?!? a little over 36 m?!? 40ish yards!?! That doesn't seem right. I'm gonna make another tonight to double check it before I upload a pdf. Here's the plain text cut 'n paste pattern for you right now if you just can't wait to make a few fruit socks of your own! LOLOLOL

edit to add link to Ravelry download pdf

Materials:
80 yards of sock wt yarn
# 2 needles
Darning needle

Gauge:
8 sts = inch

Notes:
Any cast on can be used, but I found it to be easiest to use a long tail cast on and when the sock/cozy is complete run the starting tail through the edge and draw the stitches tight. Pattern is worked in the round.

In the pattern below I use “kfb” where the increases are needed, any increase can be substituted. The fruit socks in the pictures were made with 2 strands of Tofutsies by SWTC held together. (80 yards in total) I made the increases by working a stitch in each of the strands.

Pattern:
Cast on 18 stitches.

Rnd 1: knit

Rnd 2: knit

Rnd 3: *k2, kfb* [24 stitches]

Rnd 4: knit

Rnd5: *k1, kfb* [36 stitches]

Rnd 6: knit

Rnd 7: *k2, kfb* [48 stitches]

Rnd 8: knit

Rnd 9: *k3, kfb* [60 stitches]

Rnd 10: knit

Rnd 11: *k14, kfb* [64 stitches]

Rnd 12-18: *k15, p*

Rnd 19 – 25: *k7, p*

Rnd 26 - 32: *k3, p*

Rnd 33 - 41: *k, p*
Finish:
Measure off approximately 45” (10 times the unstretched width) and use EZ’s sewn bind off.

edit to fix typo...thank you Monika!!