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# A brief love letter to handspun socks
- URL: https://rachelleggett.com/a-brief-love-letter-to-handspun-socks/
- Published: 2026-10-22T17:49:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T17:49:35.000Z
- Author: Rachel Leggett
- Tags: knitting, spinning, socks

As fall weather has descended on Colorado, I've been in the mood to do my coziest hobbies. Nothing feels cozier to me than knitting a pair of socks out of my own handspun yarn.

When I first learned to spin, I did so with the goal of being able to spin yarn for socks. Since then, I have knit several pairs of socks with my handspun. They are my most cherished and have produced some of my favorite time spent knitting.

I almost never spin machine-washable fibers so my handspun socks require hand-washing and that is absolutely worth it to me.

I just finished another pair using the gorgeous [Fidelio pattern by Caoua Coffee](https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fidelio?ref=rachelleggett.com), which is free and I highly recommend it!

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4a/54/4a545658-3738-47fb-96c2-521d6d5be7ab/content/images/2026/10/PXL_20261014_221910977-1.jpg)

Fidelio Socks!

Here are the rest of the handspun socks I have knit through the years, presented in chronological order by photos of questionable quality.

(I don't use a pattern for my plain "vanilla" socks, but I often reference my own [sock pattern generator](https://knittingrecipes.com/socks?ref=rachelleggett.com) if I need to check numbers for heel turns or toes.)

## Parade of socks

The first handspun socks I ever knit!

I spun this yarn and the orange yarn for the socks following these on a spinning wheel I had borrowed from my local library while still deciding whether I wanted to invest in my own spinning tools. (Shoutout to the Ann Arbor District Library for being an incredible public library system.)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4a/54/4a545658-3738-47fb-96c2-521d6d5be7ab/content/images/2026/10/25018407_160883778003859_2865702441607757824_n.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4a/54/4a545658-3738-47fb-96c2-521d6d5be7ab/content/images/2026/10/41966158_1121654808000817_6082752464880571896_n.jpg)

These were the first socks I knit from yarn I spun with spindles. I spun this on Turkish spindles during Tour de Fleece that year and was very proud to have finished an entire braid of fiber on spindles in only three weeks.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4a/54/4a545658-3738-47fb-96c2-521d6d5be7ab/content/images/2026/10/upload--1-.jpeg)

By this point, I had decided I preferred spinning on spindles over using a wheel ([more on that here](https://rachelleggett.com/why-i-spin-with-a-spindle/)). I spun the yarn for all the rest of these socks on supported spindles and plied them using my e-spinner.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4a/54/4a545658-3738-47fb-96c2-521d6d5be7ab/content/images/2026/10/PXL_20210327_031918400.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4a/54/4a545658-3738-47fb-96c2-521d6d5be7ab/content/images/2026/10/upload.jpeg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4a/54/4a545658-3738-47fb-96c2-521d6d5be7ab/content/images/2026/10/PXL_20240829_213004068.jpg)

My current spinning project is making yarn for a sweater! Knitting a sweater with my handspun has been a dream of mine for a long time and I'm excited to make it a reality. Hopefully I will have something on that to share in the not-too-distant future. 😊

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