The Hook

I mentioned back in December that I intended to make 2016 be the Year of the Sweater. It was time, I thought, to learn how to properly knit a sweater. I was all gung-ho, taking Craftsy classes by Amy Herzog, Amy Ross, and queueing up a class by Marly Bird. And, while I have been working on the basic cardigan pattern offered in Amy Ross’ class, what I’ve found is that 2016 is by no means the Year of the Sweater for me. No, that title has been taken over by socks.

It started innocently enough. Somehow, on Instagram, I started following some pretty incredible indie dyers, including Savvy Skeins and Desert Vista Dyers. Desert Vista, in particular, sells self-striping sock yarns and runs a year-long sock knit-along. Then, on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, I noticed a number of people casting on socks – Christmas socks for the next year, or running along a “new year, new socks” theme.

It’s been years since I last tackled socks, and I remembered the experience as being mildly painful. I knitted a pair of worsted-weight socks, and, while the socks came out OK, somehow they felted when I washed them for the first time. It is a testament to how little I understood about gauge that they came out only a touch too small when they felted, making them difficult to get over the heel, but not impossible. I also recall getting second sock syndrome, and thinking that it was just a lot of work with only mild payout when I had the pair completed. But with all the excitement I saw – and especially with the sock knitting contest that Mina Philipp competed in for the month of January (check out her Knitting Expat podcast on YouTube for more information) – I found myself caught up in the fervor and itching to cast on a pair of socks.

Bring on the Sock Knitting

I decided to take it slow and easy, and grabbed a skein of sock yarn out of my deep stash. I actually don’t remember when I bought it, but it had been at least four years. I ran a search on the internet and found what appeared to be a good, generic sock pattern on the Knitting for Dummies website. I pulled out a pair of DPNs, threw caution to the wind, and casted on without swatching. (gasp! the horror!) I found the pattern to be fairly straightforward, and turned the heel with almost no issues. Picking up the gusset was a little more complicated, and I just used my knitters experience to pick up more stitches than directed to get the finished look I wanted. It felt like it took forever (in reality, it was only two weeks), and I finally finished my first sock and casted on the second sock. Once I was finished, I tried them on and realized that they were really the perfect size for my husband, except he won’t wear hand-knitted socks because of how hard he is on his clothes. I’ve decided to make them house socks, and I feel warm inside when I wear them.

The Second Pair

As I was knitting up my house socks, Craftsy emailed me about a sock knit-along with Lucy Neatby. I’m generally a Lucy fan, and went all in, buying the kits and joining the knit-along. I’m grateful that I tackled that first pair of vanilla socks first, or I may have quit altogether. The January socks have a smocked pattern, which means periodically taking stitches off the needle and wrapping the base before replacing them on the needle. Never satisfied enough with just challenging myself in one direction, I also decided this was the prime opportunity to learn how to magic loop as well. Magic loop was only challenging here because the smocking on the stitches broke the round, which meant placing a stitch on a holder for a round before I could work it. While the sock was simple enough to knit, it was rather fiddly. Once I finished it, I determinedly cast on the second sock and just went for it. For the record, I did swatch these and got gauge so that these socks actually fit me quite nicely.

Designing Cuff-Down Socks

While I was going through the Smocked Jersey socks, I also started another Craftsy class called “Cuff-Down Socks.” When I signed up for the class, I didn’t realize that it was a sock designing class. I expected it to be a fairly basic class on knitting socks cuff-down. However, at this point, I was inspired, and now I’m also in the process of designing a pair of socks. We’ll see where that goes.

February Socks

Having finished the Smocked Jersey socks, I’m now working on the February socks. I’m excited that these are going to be my first pair of toe-up socks, and I’m doing an optional heel pattern that Lucy says will help the sock fit a bit more snugly. I’m curious to experience that first-hand and develop an opinion on the sock. Again, since I can’t add only a single new technique at a time, I’m actually knitting these two-at-a-time using the magic loop method, and I’m wondering if I will go batty from not seeing the individual sock knit up as quickly as the priors.

Looking Ahead

I still have my March socks to knit up as well, and to knit the socks I’m designing, and I found myself shopping for more sock yarn recently. I think I’m going to hold off on buying anything new until Stitches West, where I’m optimistic I’ll find some gradient and self-striping yarns that catch my eye, but I’m definitely intent at this point on continuing my sock knitting journey. That means that sweaters are on hold, for a bit, although I’m finishing up the cardigan I started for my daughter.

Here’s to the Year of the Sock!