Every Knitter Should Knit Socks

Socks are the best, everyone should knit socks...why?

1) It's economical. You can splurge on really cool yarn and you only need a little bit of it. (Prices start at $3.50 a skein.) My two favorite sock yarns: Knitpicks Felici self-striping and Wisdom Yarns Marathon socks, a self-patterning yarn, named for cities all over the US.

2) It's not hard. They have GREAT tiny circulars nowadays that make it a breeze to knit socks, mittens, legwarmers, etc. (Favorite tiny circulars; Hiya-Hiyas, a little hard to find, but available at many yarn shops.)

3) Socks are completely transportable; small knitting that lasts for thousands of stitches, you can take it anywhere and know you'll have an ongoing project. (And for a school project, your child can stitch you a little drawstring bag to stash your stuff in.)

4) Everyone wears socks. Even should your recipient perchance NOT like the colors or pattern, they will wear them because they're so dang comfy and anyway socks are partially hidden under shoes and the other part under pants, makes for an easy-to-please project. (Alright, for almost everyone; I have still not knit socks for my father. I am not quite convinced he would wear them, cause I'm not knitting solid dark brown, Dad.)

5) Choice of patterns. I think there are more books being published about knitting socks than anything else these days and more cool, self-striping and self-patterning yarns than ever there were in the history of wool.

6) Speaking of history; socks were first knitted long, long ago. Queen Elizabeth I loved her knitted stockings so much she may have learned how to knit them herself.

Lily's Socks

First Pair of Socks of the Trip

 

Here are the socks I made in the first two weeks; started in the car sitting next to my father on the way to the O'Hare, a nice knitting-distance drive. Continued during the wait in the airport, the darkness of the sleeping airplane with baby in my lap. On to London, the bus, the ferry, but not the car ride from Paris to here, I slept!

I love the colors, but the texture is a little scratchy, it was a lot of fun to knit. One error in the yarn (yarn was tied in and the color scheme messed up) translated to different feet, but they started out the same! Knitted with a Hiya Hiya 9" circular, size one, easiest way to knit socks I've ever tried!

A Really Big Ball of Yarn

Craziest knitting project ever; size 50 needles and four strands of bulky yarn, wound together in one big, big ball. The combination makes a cool blanket, warm and soft and fluffy (and only a knitter would know how long it takes to make.) Next to them, you can see the size 1's for the baby sock project that is also going on; it's all about balance!