The Sock Phase

There comes a time for most knitters when the weather gets too warm to hold a bulky sweater project. Enter sock knitting. The perfect hot weather project! Also the perfect take along (drag around) project! There are many ways to learn how to knit socks. You can take a class, watch how to videos on-line, get a friend to teach you or get a good book on the subject. I picked up a title called "I Can't Believe I'm Knitting Socks" by Cindy Guggemos. It was very easy to figure out using this book. I highly recommend it.
 Dreams of what life would be like once I learned this new skill included the fact that I would always have a pair of socks in progress tucked in the purse to fill those odd moments of the day with KNITTING! I would convert my sock drawer to ALL hand knit socks! I would become a sock snob and only socks that had been knitted with love would be allowed to touch my feet. Manufactured socks would become a distant (distasteful) memory.

The reality of my sock knitting life is far less ... well.... less EVERYTHING! I do have a pair of socks in - progress that I drag around with me. They have been with me for the last 18 months. As soon as I finish the toe decreases I'll be on to the next pair! The total number of finished pair of hand knit socks in my dresser is THREE! Only one of the three actually fits properly. I insist on wearing the others, though I spend half my time pulling them up and adjusting the heel inside my shoe, because... I worked so hard knitting them I'm gonna wear the damn things!


The first socks in progress



Unfortunately the sock knitting skill that I am most successful at is collecting sock yarn. The sock yarn stash filled a small basket within weeks of the first item that closely resembled a sock falling off my needles. I swear it was just a small basket at a time when I had only been exposed to Pattons and Deborah Norville Serenity. When I discovered Alpaca Sox, Smooshy and the fantastic Indie dyers that I could throw money at the real damage could begin.

I'm embarrassed to tell my family how much I have spent on fancy sock yarns that will probably never see the inside of a shoe. How am I gonna explain to the kids that their inheritance is not a family farm or the remains of a 401k but rather that I'm bequeathing them Cherry Tree Hill?

This is the guidebook that started it all. Very nice instructions with clear photos to make it easier.