What I Have Learned From Knitting One Sock

1. Sock-knitting enablers (yes, you ... Donna and Julie) don't tell you that knitting socks is like being on crack. An obsessive high that leads to someone who can't sleep getting up at 4 a.m. to "just work on the toe a little." For shame, ladies!


2. Someone who has never felt tempted even a little to acquire a stash (of yarn) suddenly becomes empowered by the fact that lovely, unique sock yarn is fairly inexpensive ... and I also have a long list of people that I'd like to make socks for. I had to confess to my husband that I now have yarn for three other pairs of socks heading our way.


3. Once again ... never say "never." I remember when I began listening to podcasts that Jeff Miller commented that there are even knitting podcasts. *yawn* Could anything be more boring? I did begin listening to Cast On but could justify that under the grounds that Brenda Dayne is essentially a terrific story teller who just happens to use knitting as a springboard.
   
   However, when knitting last weekend in the hotel I was listening, coincidentally, to a Cast On essay about knitting socks. There was something so ... connected ... about listening to someone talk about knitting the same sort of thing that I was doing. So, I have to admit that I now have found two other "pod-worthy" knitters. One is KnitCentric by a young American wife and mother who lives in Okinawa and has many of the same idiosyncrasies that I do ... such as skipping practically every song that anyone puts into a podcast and building a stash only of sock yarn (this is where I recognized that dangerous tendency arising in myself).
   
   The other is CraftLit by an English teacher who recognizes that what we all really need while knitting is someone to read to us. She obliges by downloading some of Pride and Prejudice from Librivox every week (free audiobooks y'all!). Both have good, practical reviews of yarn, books, and techniques which I have found very helpful.
   
   I hold KnitCentric strictly to blame for 2/3 of the yarn winging its way to me now. CraftLit gets the credit for the fact that I have downloaded Treasure Island from Librivox and was distinctly frustrated this morning when it ended with a cliffhanger ... and subsequent chapters were on my computer at work.

Hannah has had her eye on "the sock" since I began. She's grooving on the colors and tried it on this morning, triumphantly waving her foot at me, "It fits!" Whew. I can see all sorts of imperfections but what the heck. No one else will (at least much). I'll begin the other sock tonight and see how that goes. I'd have posted a photo but ran out of time. Perhaps when I have the complete pair, eh?

Tags: Knitting