Socks - #2 in the Saga

I know a lot of knitters who love to knit socks.  You can see the attraction.  The project is small and portable.  Socks are fairly quick to finish.  When finished, they are appreciated by your own feet or anyone else's.  But, for all my knitting life I have steered away from socks.

It's not that I don't like socks although I generally only wear them when it's really cold and my first choice of socks even then is a split toe version I could wear with my flip flops.  I have always said that I prefer not to run down the sock knitting rabbit hole because I know too many knitters who never came back to knitting anything else.  I think that really is true although I would be hard pressed to come up with a list of these people.

Several years back I succumbed to pressure from Peggy and knit her a pair of socks.  She loved them although they were large enough that putting them on under shoes was an issue but she wears them to go sock-footed around the house.  I thought I was completely finished with socks at that point.  But, no.

 At the Houston Fiber Fest this past summer, Heather McLain of Panorama Fiber Arts had an adorable kit for sale.  It included a splatter dyed base yarn and contrasting bright turquoise blue yarn for the heel and toe.  The yarn came in a wonderful project bag that Heather had made for her and a link to the free sock pattern on Ravelry.  I couldn't pass it up.

So here we are, these months later and I have a new pair of socks!  Who knew I would ever do this dance again?  In the process, I discovered I really hate double pointed needles.  I have used them happily in the past and when it's just the crown of a hat, or to get the project started, I'm fine with it.  But with socks you are looking at the entire project.  Nope.  I don't think so.  I used a technique that Peggy taught me that uses two circular needles.  I'm much happier.  For the next pair of socks I will try the Magic Loop method.  No more careful measuring or counting rows to make sure the second sock is the same as the first.  It sounds like a great plan to me.  I've already acquired my long circulars. 

OK.  So maybe I will do some more socks.  After all, they are small and portable and fairly quick to finish.  And when finished, they are appreciated by your own feet or anyone else's.