My BKFF (best knitting friend forever—as well as pretty much every other kind of friend you can think of), Chris, is an amazing sock knitter. You should see the way they whiz off her needles, all beautiful and intricate and even-stitched.
My relationship with socks is a bit strained. First off, ever since my toddler days (or so I’ve been told), I was one of those kids who didn’t want things on her feet. I go barefoot whenever I can, and the first thing I do when I get home is kick off my shoes—there’s quite a pile of them near the front door giving testimony to this habit. And socks just add to the torture… one more layer between my feet and the fresh, fresh air they long to breathe. So things have to get pretty frigid before I’ll put on socks.
And when I do put on socks, I’m fussy about fit. I hate shloompy socks that slide down my feet. If the heels aren’t just right, I get to tugging at them until they’re halfway up my shins—and there’s no right fit for a heel once it’s all the way up there. I want them sung, but not tight, with heels in exactly the right place.
So, given my general distaste for footwear and my persnickitiness when it comes to fit, you can see why I haven’t knit many socks—two pairs to be exact. They’re complicated enough (at least they seem that way right now) that I can’t easily give them away, yet odds are slim to none that a pair I knit will actually satisfy me and find use.
All that having been said—Chris and I are going to Sock Summit in August. It’s a perfect fit for her… and I love Portland and knitting, so it’s not really off the mark for me. But going means I need to knit some more socks, so I’ll have at least a little footly cred by time I get there. So I took a break last night from some of the patterns I’ve been working up to cast on a pair of socks.
I’m going with “Little Child’s Sock” (a woman’s sock actually, the original was for a child) from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.
They’re pretty darn cute: about an inch of ribbing, a 2×2 check section, more ribbing, then stockinette with a 2×2 check panel down the front and a mock seam up the back. I’m knitting them in Trekking Hand Art, Fire colorway, and am having a lovely time working my way from one section to the next.
I plan to check them regularly against favorite pairs of socks in hope that I will, despite the odds, wind up with something I’ll actually wear.