Rock Those Old Socks!

Today I did five loads of laundry between my morning and afternoon classes. FIVE loads people! And the greatest part about my little afternoon chore is that I accomplished everything within a two hour period. I know what you’re all thinking… WHAT IS THIS MAGIC? Well, if you try to schedule your laundry outside of a Sunday afternoon/night magical things do in fact happen. This wonderful reality commonly takes the name of “class.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “class” encompasses the wonderful, fifty-minute lecture for which you are expected to attend once, twice, maybe several times a week. I know this seems like a foreign concept on those days when we just can’t get out of bed, but the majority of students do regularly attend class during the hours of nine in the morning to three in the afternoon. And in addition, those students that don’t attend classes during this period generally spend their time sleeping or grabbing food. For this reason, this small window of opportunity composes something I like to call “PRIME TIME.”

Yes, my dear beloved subscribers (AKA my peers forced to read and comment on my blog), I take advantage of this time period twice a month. I luckily have free time between 11am and 2:15pm every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I hate to waste this time on sleep or unproductive internet browsing, so when clothes pile up I’m delighted to trek three floors down to the vacant basement laundry room.

Today was one of those fateful days. I slowly made my way down the stairs with a bag of clothes large enough to rival Santa Claus’ sack of goodies. I took up five separate washing machines in a straight row. Two hours later I found myself folding the last of my delicates when I came across two old socks.

I wear long socks regularly under my boots. Regular socks just don’t make the cut when I need to trek around campus in my snow/rain gear, which let’s be honest, is just about every other day here in State College. However, after much use, I found that my two long black socks developed large holes in the heel. I hesitated to throw the socks out because the rest of the material remained perfectly in tact. What a waste, right?! So instead, I was inspired to browse Pinterest for DIY old sock crafts. I came across two winners outside of the standard sock monkey: coffee cozies and handmade finger gloves.

In each project you cut off the part of the sock that hugs the foot and use the rest of the material for a creative creation. The coffee cup cozy appealed to me because I’m a Starbucks addict. And when you average a cup of coffee a day, you waste a lot of cardboard cozies. Since I’m also a big supporter of sustainability, I found this daily practice wasteful and wanted to fashion something more environmentally friendly. And WAH-LAH! The coffee cozy was born! All you have to do is cut the sock in a small enough section to cover a cup and you’re set.

The second project, a fingerless glove, proved equally as easy and useful. It’s still snowing in April, so it’s never too late to sport a set of gloves. I followed the directions on this site. The cuter the sock, the cuter the glove!

I hope all of you enjoyed these sock creations. Countless others exist as well! Next time you come across an old sock or misfit without its pair, hop on Pinterest and get creative! There’s a use for everything!