socks: a love-hate relationship

Are you also in a knitting funk right now? I'm not sure what it is--I should track it to see if this is an annual occurrence, but I suspect it is. January is exciting, as it is a fresh year, a fresh start on new crafting goals and resolutions. And the whole, "I just survived my last-minute holiday gift knitting--time to cast on for me!" excitement that drives my knitting activity that month. Then February brought my Olympics-related knitting marathon. So by March I just lost my mojo, I felt spent. So I'm slowly coming back. Spring has emerged here, the sun is shining, and that's helped. But what's really sparking things around here right now is my newfound excitement over sock knitting.

I've had a love-hate relationship with socks. Either I really enjoy making them, and then are disappointed by the fit and then swear off making something I'll never wear .... or I've started a pair to find that I hate the feel of the needles, and quit knitting after finishing one sock since it's just not enjoyable. It's been two years since I actually finished a pair of socks, so that shows how deep this divide goes. Part of the problem is I normally don't wear socks, and tend to go barefoot. And when I do wear socks, they are snug fitting anklet running socks. So when I knit up my socks, they just weren't snug enough and I wasn't used to feeling something slouchy on my calves. But something revolutionary (for me) has happened during this two-year sock void .... I learned magic loop! And the minute I did, I realized .... hey, I might not hate making socks anymore! So in the past few weeks I've been testing this theory by casting on for socks again. This time I'm making some key changes based on the recommendations of my master sock knitting Mom and Grandma: smaller size needles (previously I always used U.S. size 2s, which are humongous in the realm of sock knitting) and casting on less stitches. Most of my patterns called for a 64 or 70 cast on before. So I've switched to 1.5 (2.50 mm) needles and a 60 stitch cast on. Success! I love knitting with magic loop, and so far the fit when I've tried these on feels sooo much better. So this month I'm devoting to the sock. I plan on trying another pair with size 1 needles (2.25 mm) next to see what I like best. I'm not so sure I'm up to knitting socks on size 0s yet, although I know many expert sock knitters who swear by the smallest needles sizes!

Yarn: Magic and Moonshine Fiddi Widdi Wow Wow in Amazonista

11 comments:

momto5 said...

i really like that yarn. i enjoy knitting socks.. but children's socks. LOL much easier to manage.

Donna said...

I find myself gravitating towards socks this time of year. My love/hate is that while I love the simple vanilla sock pattern, I occasionally like to have something different to mix it up. That means I have to think.... Ugh.... Happy Knitting!

Michelle said...

Oh I'm the opposite way, immediately after Christmas was The Knitting Slump and I'm only just recovering! Have a love/hate relationship with sock knitting myself, but I'm thinking maybe more interesting patterns would help, maybe? Who knows.

Unknown said...

I could knit socks all year round, they are my go to project for watching TV :) Lovely spring colours in this yarn!

Ness said...

Those are super bright and happy! I also love-hate socks, but for different reasons. I hate knitting them (in all forms: cuff-down, toe-up, two-at-a-time...), but I love wearing them. It's the only knitted garment I have this problem with. It's usually the other way around. :)

Unknown said...

Lovely sock :) I knit mine with 2.0mm needles over 64 stitches. Seems to work well for my gauge, took me a while to work it out though

Lucy Bowen said...

I like knitting socks but I get bored and don't want to do the second!! Yours look fabulous - lovely colours.

Babajeza said...

Great socks! I'm a 100 percent sock lover and I only wear knitted woolen socks (or go barefoot when it is really hot, which doesn't happen that often.

Anonymous said...

I get sock phases when I really like to knit socks. They are the knitted things that get definitively the most wear here. As for needles and sizes: I'm a 6 1/2 in US Size, 37 in German size and I cast one 60 stitches if I use 4ply sock yarn and 2mm needles and only 52 stitches if I use 6ply yarn and 3mm needles. I use this table to define the number of stitches I need http://www.coats.de/PDF/reg_sockentabelle.pdf It is in German but it might help. You just need to look up the referencing shoe size you need (row 1) and then you get the number of stitches in total and per needle you need with 4ply yarn (row 2)

unionjgirl said...

Yay for rediscovering a love of socks! After my first pair, I'm in my own little sock phase too.

Carol said...

A cute sock - just looked at one of your last posts and saw the Cowgirl Cowl which I have had on my Favorites page. Nice job. I have to make this!

2021 year in review

  Who would have thought that the second year of a pandemic would be worst than the first, in terms of crafting mojo? Not I. But this chart ...