Better living through crochet: chair leg “socks”

Every now and then I come across something I didn’t know I needed, and then when I see it, I wonder how I ever lived without it.

Such is the case with chair leg “socks,” the brainchild of a fellow crocheter, Jennifer Wayland, who is known as “Hooked-on-Crochet” at Ravelry.

My home has a lovely kitchen that is almost perfect. The one thing that mars this nearly perfect kitchen is the noise that the chairs make when moved across the floor:

So when I came across Hooked-on-Crochet’s chair leg “sock” project, I knew there was no time to waste. Using the directions she had posted on her project page, I got out my 3.75 mm hook and set to work.

My kitchen is a riot of neutrals with beiges and browns of every stripe, so the first thing I had to determine before I could tame the sockless chairs was which color of Red Heart Super Saver to use:

crochetbug, chair leg crochet socks, crochet chair leg socks, crocheted, crocheting
The chair’s legs before begin fitted for chair leg socks

After considering the options, I settled on warm brown.

To better fit the socks to my chairs’ chair legs, I had to modify Hooked-on-Crochet’s pattern.

I followed the directions as written for rounds one and two, but on the third round, I made two single crochets in every third stitch for a total four increases that resulted in 16 single crochet stitches at the end of round 3.

For rounds 4-7, I worked a single crochet in each stitch.

When I got to round eight, I worked a single crochet stitch in each of the first two stitches, then used an invisible decrease over the third and fourth stitches. I continued in that pattern all the way around for a total of four decreases, ending round five with 12 single crochet stitches.

For the ninth (and final) round, I worked one single crochet stitch into each stitch around, and in just 122 stitches, I had my first chair leg sock:

crochetbug, chair leg crochet socks, crochet chair leg socks, crocheted, crocheting
A chair leg sock for a chair leg of my kitchen chairs

The fit of the sock was fairly snug, and as such required some wrestling with the bottom of the chair leg, but eventually, I got the sock on:

crochetbug, chair leg crochet socks, crochet chair leg socks, crocheted, crocheting
A chair leg sock for a chair leg of my kitchen chairs

The result was satisfactory, so I made three more:

crochetbug, chair leg crochet socks, crochet chair leg socks, crocheted, crocheting
The first chair in my kitchen outfitted with four chair leg socks

and the result is nothing less than astounding:

I cannot thank Jennifer (aka Hooked-on-Crochet) enough for coming up with the idea for the chair leg “sock” and taking the time to document the project and make it publicly available.

It has already made my life better.