For the love of socks

Before I ever knitted a pair of socks, I didn't see the point. I dislike wearing socks, because that means that it's not nice enough outside for flip flops.. and I could live in flip flops. Socks constrict my feet, and that makes me antsy, and really, socks are cheap at the store. Why knit them? I was always so perplexed by knitters who solely (ha!) knit socks. But I was going through a phase a couple of years ago where ever knitting project I chose had to be a learning exercise. I learned how to do colorwork when I made a deep scoop neck vest, I learned to knit lace with a triangle shawl, I labored though an applied i-cord bind off when I made a little shrug... and I guess I figured that socks were something I didn't know how to do, so I had better make a pair. It was a terrible struggle. I think that first sock took me a couple of months. I put the one completed sock, the yarn, the pattern, and needles away in a bag in my craft room and forgot about it. When I found the bag a few months later, I was like, big sigh. One sock is no use. I might as well just suffer through the second one. Apparently in those few months away from sock knitting, I became a much faster, better, confident knitter. I whipped that second sock out like nobody's business. And voila! I had a pair of hand-knit socks. Oh my gosh, did they feel wonderful on my feet. I loved those socks. I saw the point of socks. Fast forward to today, and I have a lovely pile of socks. Five pairs. Enough so that in the cold part of the winter I could wear a pair each day to work and wash them on the weekend.

The dark blue pair in the middle was my first FO of 2013. The green pair on top- that's the pair that started it all. It's a solid collection, but I wish there were more. I also wish that unicorns were real, I had gotten a Hogwarts letter at age 11, and each day was 56 hours long. What can you do. I'm still not a terribly fast sock knitter, and socks are not my number one priority, so my collection will have to just grow slowly over time.

I started this pair a few days ago and I honestly am not sure whether I love it or hate it. I'm not indifferent, that's for sure. It's an extreme, just don't know which one. The yarn is KnitPicks Felici self-striping yarn in High Tide. It's a basic chevron pattern with garter stitch in between. Somehow when I cast on, some magic happened and each garter + chevron chunk is exactly one color. I have no idea how I'm going to make the second sock match. Probably try eleventy-five times until I either get it right or give up and make them not match. Or decide that I actually hate it and just rip the thing out. I have no idea.