Okay, we don’t really have toe picks on roller skates. But we do use/end up on our toes a lot (well, the girls who know how to skate do, and I assume I’ll be doing those moves soon-ish), which can really wear down the boot. So much so that there are all kinds of toe guards out there, from plain strips of leather to super fancy custom caps (because even the fancy ones are much cheaper to replace than the skate boot). And while I was busy going through every single roller derby related Pinterest board, I came across a pattern for crocheted ones.
So now I have crocheted ones. I started with the basic pattern found here, but used a thicker, wool yarn and thus a slightly larger hook than she used (I used an F with a heavy worsted/light bulky because I still wanted it to be a really dense fabric). Because of this, of course my round count and stitch count changed slightly. I also found that I needed to make the toe stop opening on the same round as the first set of eyelets. And I think I should have/will go back and add a round or two above the second set of eyelets, because I’m afraid they’re going to rip.
They work up super fast (you could do a pair in an evening-ish), and I used scrap yarn (hence the not matching even a little bit) so they were essentially free. And they make me happy to look at. Win!
