Sock knitting is something I was always too intimidated to pick up - the needles are so tiny! There are toes to work around, and heels to shape, and how the heck do you make cuffs tight enough to stay up but not so loose that they fall down? It doesn't help that my feet and calves are a non-average shape, so simply following an existing pattern was always out of the question. I hadn't done a lot of shaped work before, either, which made it worse. How did gauge affect the way socks would fit and stay in place? Would I have to mess with... gulp... ease?
It took a lot of internet research before I felt confident enough to make the financial investment in some sock yarn and a pair of Size 1 circulars. I didn't start small, either - determined not to be a victim of Second Sock Syndrome, I decided to try out the seemingly miraculous Double Circular method of knitting both socks at the same time. I didn't entirely understand it from the videos I'd watched but really, how hard could it be? If I was going to tackle socks I was surely capable of a measley second circular needle too. What could go wrong?
Well, let me tell you, you can get some pretty gnarly tangles that way. I wish I'd taken a picture to document just how dire things got but between dual yarn vomits wrapping around each other and somehow ending up with one and a half socks on a single needle and only a half on the second I nearly gave up there and then. But I persisted, and I finished those socks and a bunch more pairs and now I just don't quite feel right if there isn't a pair nearby waiting for some attention.
And tell me that these two aren't crying out to be made into a pair of socks. Something stranded, perhaps. A little faux isle to let the 'sweet georgia's colour variations (there's a much more pronounced green in there, in person - I'm not entirely sure why my camera can't pick up some colours!) play out against the pale blue of the 'Heritage'. Every time I pick up my current knitting I think about the sad, neglected sock needles sitting in the corner just waiting to have something cast on to them. I keep seeing those blues from the corner of my eye. It would be so simple to open a new browser tab and search Ravelry's pattern database for some likely charts.
I really am determined to make a better effort on the Geek-A-Long this year. Having something as simple as a knit-and-purl rectangle to work on is a good thing, too, because it requires so little attention (barely any, really, outside of a little counting). But would it really be such a bad thing to cast on one little pair of socks to go with the squares? Something to alternate with when I need an extra challenge? Something to feel like a holiday when the tiny sock needles make my hands ache? Something as pretty and delicate as the blanket squares are fun and chunky?
The blanket is, for now, the only thing I'm really working on. I would need to set up the swift and ball winder before I could use those pretty little skeins. And, once I'd found some charts I liked the look of, I'd still have to adapt them to fit my own foot and calf measurements. The prep work is enough to keep me at bay for the time being. The promise of a brand new Geek-A-Long chart only twelve rows away helps, too - there's nothing quite as exciting as casting on a new project after all, and a new chart is the next best thing to that.
Still, those socks would be so damn pretty.
No comments:
Post a Comment