Hi, my name is Wanda and I’m a sock-knitting addict.
Lately there’s a lot of talk of sock-knitting in the blogosphere. All of you know how much I love knitting socks. Then there was the Represent event with the Harlot. I love seeing the pic of everyone’s sock at the meetup in Central Park. I was all verklempt at the sight of those socks. Today, reading Carole’s post, it really gave me a giggle.
I also got to thinking how some people left comments that I have yet to reply back to (sorry about that people, I have good intentions, but so little time these days) and one that I wanted to comment on was from Norma, who wrote (ed. by me)
“Portable, schmortable” about the
fact that people always say that is the reason they love knitting
socks. “What is more portable about socks than, say,
mittens, a hat, a scarf, or a sweater sleeve?”
What I wanted to answer to that is, other projects may have the same amount of portability as socks, although it depends on your project. In my case, this winter, I’ve done some top-down raglan sweaters that a sweater sleeve did not lend itself to portability. Hats are always portable to me, mittens and scarves are of course, portable as well. However, some of those items (hats, mittens and usually scarves) are seasonal, whereas I can always knit socks year-round. Even if I won’t wear wool socks in the summer, I can always knit them and they don’t get too heavy and I’m not turned off by knitting them. I never want to pick up a scarf in the summer (especially since I live w/o a/c in the summer). Also, socks are a like a sweet, small gift. As Kim said in a comment, I never tire of the simple act of turning a heel and I never get bored with socks like I do with scarves. I agree. While I do like scarves, the knitting of them does get tedious.
The sock you see above is the second of the Regia Banner socks. The pair is complete, but at the time of the picture, the second sock was waiting for the toe to be kitchnered for almost two weeks. I finally did it this weekend and M2 is already wearing them and has done so for 2 days. Which does my heart good, especially since I was trying to figure out a way to keep them for myself! I am so evil and perhaps not so generous of heart, but oh well. M2 is growing so much (he is 13 yo after all) and his feet have been growing hugely, in my mind. I was almost hoping they were too small and then I could keep them, but no such luck.
Another thing I’ve been doing is listening to podcasts. One that I am fully caught up on (which is scary since I’ve only started listening in the past 2 months) is the Lime & Violet podcast. Holy crap, are they funny! And they have a section where they talk about yarn porn. These two ladies primarily knit socks,so they are always talking about a new purveyor of sock yarn.
Besides the sock knitting love that I’ve already professed to, back in August, I talked of crossing a line. Now, I’m much less likely to buy a skein of the self-striping yarns, although sock yarns like Austermann Step, Trekking and Opal still feel the yarn love, but for the variegated colors. Now I’m all about the handpainted yarn that are sold by so many independents, it’s insane. But what is really pushing me over the edge is Cookie’s sock patterns. Holy cow, those socks are gorgeous.
After all of my handpainted sock love, this girl has picked up a few (gasp!) solid-colored sock yarns, which is so unusual for me. But seriously, I need to knit a few of these sock patterns.
The last sock pictured, is my “to-go” sock knitting that I keep in the car for those moments of waiting. I’ve done the heel and am now working on the foot. It’s some old school Opal purchased at least 4 years ago. It has lots of colors, but the predominant ones are purple, mustard, brown and cream. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked it, but now I’m really diggin’ it.
Do you think you might be a sock-knitting addict when you want to wind up all of the handpainted skeins of sock yarn just to see how they look all mixed up in the center pull skein?
Sorry for the long tome, please also remember the blog contest! You can leave a comment to enter for any of the projects, except sock yarn. For sock yarn, please send me an email or leave a comment stating why you think you should win sock yarn. All other entries will be entered into the giveaway with use of a random number generator. I’ve also decided to close the contest a little earlier. I want to get the prizes out ASAP, but wanted to let the Easter holiday pass. The contest will now end Tuesday, April 10 at 12 midnight MST. Sorry for that, but I want to get them out and on Tuesday I have a big assignment due, after that I will want to clear out the prize yarn and send it on its way.
