Socktober: The Art of Knitting Socks

There are three things I feel that I need to accomplish before I am a real knitter:

1. Being able to correct my mistakes
2. Casting on and completing a sweater
3. Making socks

So far I have only accomplished a bit of number one. I can “read” my work and see where I make mistakes and I am getting comfortable fixing dropped stitches.

As for the sweater, a while back I got yarn and started a sweater using a pattern that a friend gifted me. When I tried to add the next skein of yarn, my knit row became a purl row and I was so frustrated with the mistake that I frogged the whole thing and made, what else…a hat.

But socks…I *thought* I knew what I was doing as I made several pair of thick slipper socks using a pattern from Brome Fields but those socks are limited to household use only and I wanted some cute footwear that I could wear in public.

On a jaunt to my local yarn shop, Finely the Knitting Corner, the owner Kathy shared her fall calendar, which had a sock making class. I was feeling froggy so I leaped and signed up for the class. It was an early Rachtober gift, but I was feeling so guilty! How dare I take a class to learn how to make socks? I had all of those books in my personal library, access to books from the public library, patterns that friends have shared and YouTube! I got over the guilt and made arrangements to be able to attend my class.

I am learning so much more about knitting than the art of making socks! Kathy is an excellent teacher, patiently walking us through the instructions so that we can get our socks created. The goal of the class is to make socks but we are learning so many techniques. Short rows, magic loop, taking your time to enjoy the process.

For this class we are doing one sock at a time, top down. I have made a cuff, heel flap and turned the heel. Heel turns are where I would normally stop and doubt that I was “doing it right” and my poor sock would lie abandoned. I have not given up on my socks because Kathy’s gentle guidance has allowed me to stop hearing all the ways that I knit “wrong” and just knit.

I am so excited about this new skill…like “Oprah giving away her favorite things” excited. I won’t self sabotage and offer socks for Christmas/holiday presents but 2018 will be the year I sock it to them…my people are totally getting socks throughout the year because I have a bunch of sock yarn and the skill to use it!

There are three more classes to go. It has been fun chatting with the other students, talking about WIPs and yarn. Knitting and crocheting can be such an isolating activity but this class allows me to socialize and learn and get some work done. I have also decided that it is perfectly OK for me to be taking this class because everyone should:

Follow me on Instagram for progress on my socks! I’m on there are as “@sayitrahshay”

Sock it to me…have you ever knit socks or had some made for you?