2014-The Year of the Sock

Merry Socksters

I've been collecting sock yarn for a long time now.....I don't quite know what my obsession is with it. Perhaps it's all the pretty colors that attract me.....or the fact that socks are a relatively small time-commitment project.  All those self-striping colors are the most enticing; you just want to keep knitting to see what color or pattern comes next!  Maybe I just fancy having some unusual, tricked-out socks on my feet some day. And therein lies the kicker (no pun intended)......where ARE all these socks that I imagine wearing? Not knitted that's for sure.....these wonderful sock yarns sit in a box, bag, or basket just languishing away.....waiting to become something spectacular; waiting to be free!

Sock knitting is adventurous....not something I would teach a beginner. And yet, this is the very first project my mother had to knit as a girl in wartime Germany just shortly after she learned how to knit---socks for the troops. My mom still knits socks---it's her go-to knitting and she's good at it--no pattern required! I, on the other hand, being of the variety who cherishes the written word, need directions. I like to see progress; check off a line or stitch count; see a picture of what the end-product is supposed to look like. I enjoy knitting a sock---there is a lot going on in this small, unassuming little accessory and yet, the sock yarn still piles up.....

For the longest time I suffered from SSS---known to us in the knitting world as Second Sock Syndrome. You get one sock done and the second one never gets cast on let alone completed. Cue the magic loop method---knitting two socks at the same time on one long circular needle---genius! Books have been written about this method and I actually learned the ins and outs of this technique in a class I took at Baker's Yarns in Springfield, VT. AND.....I completed a pair of socks in that class last winter. And the sock yarn stash still sits....

So a new year is upon us and with that comes the contemplation of what one wants to do differently/better. This year, I want to keep it simple----I want to personally declare 2014 The Year of the Sock. I want to dig out all those socks I started but didn't finish and well, finish them. I want to use up some of that sock yarn stash. I want to make as many PAIRS of socks as I can without getting distracted by some other project----the siren song of my existence. I can do this, right? This is not an insurmountable goal, is it? Well, I don't think so....right now.....

Okay, so here's the really embarrassing part----the first pair of socks that I want to complete for 2014 were started in March.......of 2011!! Yeah.....I dug these out two days ago on 01-01-2014 not because of my "Year of the Sock" declaration, but because the color way was, once again, calling my name from its cellophane bag enclosure. This project is leftover from the year I joined the Rockin' Sock Club of Blue Moon Fiber Arts fame. The pattern is called "Merry Socksters" by Irishgirlieknits and it's available on Ravelry. The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock lightweight superwash merino in the color way Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.  I'm in love with this dye job---so much so that I thought it would look good in a vest......maybe in another life.

So, as the picture above illustrates, I am still knitting the cuffs of the socks, but this is progress!  Trust me......there's a picot edge-turned under hem at the beginning of these babies---so there is more knitting than the eye can see!  Updated pics, I hope, will be forthcoming.

On another note, we've been having some snow as well as some very cold temperatures here in New England. Cooper, our young Golden Retriever, loves the woodstove on days like this......

Gratuitous pet photo