" Hi, I am Doris, and I am presently working on my twenty-eighth pair of socks."
Seriously, I just recently thought about just how many pairs of socks I have knitted (mostly) for my husband alone. The other day I had ten pairs drying on my clothes dryer (I wash them in the machine on the hand- wash cycle and then line-dry them) and he still had enough pairs to last him another week at least.
Please note that all captions under the pictures are links to my ravelry posts with detailed information such as yarn and pattern used .
Have I turned into a sockaholic?
Honestly, I don't even count knitting socks as a new project. When I say "I will not start anything new until I have finished such and such project", it is a given that I do have a pair of socks on my needles. Let's face it they are small enough to transport easily and pull out anywhere anytime to knit a few rows or even just a couple of stitches or turn a heel. They are also easy enough (depending on stitch pattern) to work on while chatting or watching TV.
I didn't start that way.
When I got back into knitting around 2005, my friend Mary Pat gave me some pretty sock yarn and two sock knitting patterns. I dismissed the patterns, because I thought the yarn was far too pretty to wear on your feet and made shawls out of the sock yarn.
Another friend, Marie-France, kept telling me how much fun sock knitting is, but I po-poohed the idea.
And then it happened.
The year was 2011 when I saw this really pretty self patterning sock yarn while on vacation on the Outer Banks. The yarn even came with a free pattern written by the shop owner, Jeanne, and was marked "easy". Christmas was not far off and one of my sons, Richard, was into snowboarding. So, why not knit a nice pair of warm socks for him?!
And so it started.
Of course I could not make just one pair for one son, I had to make a pair for my husband, Tony
and for our eldest son, Gerry
and for our youngest son, Matthew.
And THEN a friend gifted me a ball of German sock yarn "Zauberball". And it would have been meaningless for anyone else to receive socks made out of that, so I made a pair for myself and whenever I wear them I do think of Erica 😍.
That should probably have been enough: One pair of handknitted socks for each member of the family; five pairs total.
BUT what do you do when one of the recipients swears that the socks you knitted are the only socks which ever fitted.
So, I HAD to knit my husband a few more pairs of socks.
And then another fatal incident, finding the perfect pattern.
One seemingly ordinary day my friend Bobbi told me about this new well fitting heel-construction and of course I had to try it.
And promptly fell in love.....
So, since then, I am only knitting two-socks-at-a-time toe-up and use the FLK heel construction.
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| Always knitting... |
So there, I admit it, I am a sockaholic, but I have no regrets, so don't stop me.
I dare you to give it a try yourself and see where it takes YOU.
Perhaps take a sock knitting class next time I offer it (most likely in January/ February).
Disclaimer: The timeline is not 100% correct, but it makes for a good story ;)
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