I know this isn’t a world shattering revelation,
but it has been on my mind for the past week or so. I’ve always know
what type of things I don’t like to knit. I don’t like knitting lace, I
don’t like knitting large items that take forever,
I don’t like knitting from charts, and (until recently) I don’t like
knitting socks. Maybe instead of ‘don’t like to knit’ I really mean
things that I’m not drawn to knitting. I used to think that I really
liked mittens, but I’ve only knit a handful of pairs
and I have one project that is about 80% finished, but I just keep
finding other things to knit rather than finish these mittens.
I’ve made a handful of hats and cowls, but those aren’t usually overly complicated and I get bored pretty fast because most of the time the stitch patterns aren’t complicated enough to hold my attention. Of course, sometimes simple patterns are the best for travel knitting or movie watching knitting, but most of the time, I need something a little more complicated. One thing that I’ve found myself start looking for specifically in patterns are cables. I do love to knit cables. I think they look fantastic on the finished object, and also make it look more complicated than it really is. I find cables relatively straightforward to knit, and I love how changing which way the cable twists can give you such complex patterns in your knitting. This would explain why I currently have two shawls on the needles that both have a sort of Celtic Knot design.
So these three facets of my knitting personality have come together in a perfect storm sort of situation over the past few weeks and I've been managing to make real headway on multiple sock projects. So far this year, I've finished 3 pairs of socks and this past week, I've cast on for 2 more pairs (links are to my Ravelry project pages).
I’ve made a handful of hats and cowls, but those aren’t usually overly complicated and I get bored pretty fast because most of the time the stitch patterns aren’t complicated enough to hold my attention. Of course, sometimes simple patterns are the best for travel knitting or movie watching knitting, but most of the time, I need something a little more complicated. One thing that I’ve found myself start looking for specifically in patterns are cables. I do love to knit cables. I think they look fantastic on the finished object, and also make it look more complicated than it really is. I find cables relatively straightforward to knit, and I love how changing which way the cable twists can give you such complex patterns in your knitting. This would explain why I currently have two shawls on the needles that both have a sort of Celtic Knot design.
After a few days of really thinking about why, all
of a sudden, I’m excited to knit socks I came to the realization that I
have found fixes to the parts of sock knitting that I wasn’t crazy
about.
Second Sock Syndrome
I, unfortunately, do suffer from Second Sock
Syndrome. And Second Mitten Syndrome. And Second Sleeve Syndrome. I
think, for me, it is more about getting distracted by other projects
than specifically not wanting to knit the same thing
twice. I find I equally leave single projects like hats or shawls
half-finished as well because I find a new pattern I want to knit. But
there certainly is no denying that, when trying to decide what to knit, a
duplicate of something I’ve already done is
pretty low on my list. That was the case until I discovered two at a
time magic loop by watching this YouTube video by VeryPink Knits.
Pretty Yarn
When I started looking into sock knitting I
investigated my yarn choices and came across one name consistently:
Socks that Rock. My first pair of socks that I knit were made out of
Socks that Rock Lightweight for my boyfriend.
He never wears them, but that’s a blog post for another time. I bought a
second skein of Socks that Rock and was going to make a pair for myself
when I couldn’t bring myself to put such pretty yarn on my feet and in
my shoes. I just spent so much money on
this yarn and it was going to go on my feet?! I don’t think so.
Luckily I knew about the Sockhead Hat pattern already and
used my Socks that Rock for that.
I didn’t go back to sock knitting for
almost a year after that, until a trip back to
my parent’s house and they tell me (just in passing) that they really
like the hand knit socks my grandma made years ago, but they’re starting
to get worn out a bit. Mind you, they know that I knit, they know that
I give knitted gifts every Christmas and
most of the times on birthdays as well, and they wait until October to
mention they want hand-knit socks! I visit a local yarn shop back in my
hometown with the intention of buying only yarns that I can’t get at my
local shop back in the city. One of those
skeins was some Lang Yarns Ja Woll. It was self patterning and came
with a spool of reinforcement thread. This yarn wasn’t as expensive as
the Socks that Rock, and it felt more like what socks should be made out
of. It is 25% nylon, which made me feel like
it would stand up to wear well (especially with the reinforcement
thread). I knit a pair of socks for my dad out of that yarn and
promptly ordered some other colorways online and made another pair for
my mom for Christmas that year. They love them and tell
me whenever they’re wearing the socks. Knitting with that Ja Woll yarn
really helped me find yarn that really is best suited for socks. Self
patterning yarn is great and I know that if I try to make something else
out of the yarn, the pattern might not turn
out looking any good. It also helped me realize that I don’t need to
buy the top of the line yarns just because that is what all the
podcasters or pattern designers are using. Commercially produced sock
yarn with nylon is great! I honestly don’t think
I’ll ever use Socks that Rock for socks, but the colorways are gorgeous
and would make great hats, shawls, scarves, etc.
Product Knitter vs. Process Knitter
The discussion on if you’re a product or process
knitter is very prevalent in the knitting community. I’ve been giving
this question a good think and while everyone is a bit of a mix between
the two, I lean more toward the product knitter
side. I cleaned and organized my knitting things last weekend and I
put all my finished objects in their own bag. Some of the items
included: a baby sweater (I don’t have a baby or know anyone who is
pregnant right now), multiple cowls (I only have one neck),
and some shawlettes (which don’t go with the t-shirt and jeans I wear
most days). Most of these also won’t be gifted just because I don’t
know anyone who would be interested in them. Maybe someday, but not
right now. So I made all of these projects with
the knowledge that I wouldn’t be using/wearing them and I didn’t have
anyone to gift them to but they were all patterns that I really liked. I
came across the same issue with socks as well. I'm not a huge fan of hand-knit socks because I am really hard on my socks. And I just can't put something that I spent weeks knitting on my feet and into shoes where no one will see them. Luckily, my parents really like hand-knit socks so I can try out all of these new patterns on them and I can check Christmas gifts off my list real early in the year. So now I can indulge myself in all the cute sock patterns and pretty yarns and know that these socks are going to a good home. So these three facets of my knitting personality have come together in a perfect storm sort of situation over the past few weeks and I've been managing to make real headway on multiple sock projects. So far this year, I've finished 3 pairs of socks and this past week, I've cast on for 2 more pairs (links are to my Ravelry project pages).
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