Epiphany

Almost from the beginning, I've always been a sock knitter. I learned to knit on a scarf , then made a pair of ribbed mittens, then I was on to socks. I was such a new knitter I knotted the yarn together on the sole of my first pair! Socks have been my thing for well over a decade. It's always socks.

Then something happened this past year. I just got tired of socks. I couldn't bear the thought of knitting another one. I stopped looking at sock patterns, passed by sock yarn in the store. I unraveled the one I was working on - that's how little I cared about finishing it. Admittedly I've gotten a lot of knitting done since then, but still it's made me pause wondering what happened to my love of socks?

A recent KnitPicks podcast included asking someone how they got started knitting. I turned off the radio and started answering it as if they had asked me. Which turned into a delightfully time-filling interview driving down the interstate. And it uncovered why I abandoned socks - they abandoned me first.

Rundown of my socktastrophe: Last year I knit a pair for my Emah that were mirror images. Only I kept messing up and essentially knit almost 5 full socks to get two that matched. I excitedly started a complex fairisle pair, only I could never get it right - the fabric was always too unstretchy to slip over my heel. The next pair I knit for Emah was a pattern I'd recently used before, but somehow I picked up the wrong needles for the second sock and ended up knitting 3 full socks to get a matched set. Then there was the fiddly modular pair that if I put down for more than a few days I'd have to re-teach myself how to do the pattern - unraveled! Then the final pair - lovely cashmere and wool yarn from an indie dyer, bought on my trip to Vancouver. Easy to knit pattern, but somehow I just couldn't get through it.

At the time I didn't think of all the work that was for naught, but looking back it was a bad year for sock knitting. I think my total lack of interest now, and amazing ability to finish things lately, really stems from a deep discouragement that socks are a finishable project. But that gives me hope, as I think one day I'll dismiss my discouragement and be back to my socks again. Which is good, I have way too much sock yarn to really give it up.