Favorite Socks

Well, that was a long break from my blog. What has happened to me in the last two months? I got my gallbladder out because it was causing me massive pain. I sunk into a little bit of a depression afterward and didn't feel like knitting or doing much of anything. On top of all that, I had to deal with the last of my healing at school because the new semester started up. Now, I'm all healed up and I have been knitting and spinning like a mad woman. I've been knitting so much that I have completely finished the Indigo Bed Socks that I am knitting for my friend Conrad. I ran out of blue, so I had to finish up the socks with a bit of extra grey.

The reason why I wanted to learn how to knit in the first place was so I could knit socks. I am still not sure why I even wanted to knit socks in the first place. I suspect it has something to do with memories of snuggling up with my favorite bear and reading Little Women obsessively. I identified with Joe and she was one of the ones that was referenced with knitting socks and reading at the same time.

When I first started knitting I was intimidated by socks because I had seen my mom (who was also trying to learn to knit) use double pointed needles. I didn't think I could do it. It wasn't until last year that I really started knitting socks and loving it. I moved past my DPN issues and even learned how to use magic loop so I could use both techniques. I managed to knit five pairs of socks last year and loved knitting every one.

I looked back on yesterday's post to refresh myself on the specific sock resolutions I had to plan out the next few sock projects when I saw that Tasmin of the Project Project blog commented with a question.

"I'd love to know if there are any particular patterns you have in mind that you'd like to work on this year. And I'd love to see your favorite sock pattern, if you have one."

I know that I haven't been thinking of any sweater patterns or shawl patterns yet, but there are a few sock patterns that I had been thinking of when I made up my list for this year and I have a lot of inspiration from the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry.

One of the socks I have been wanting to try is an entrelac sock. I have tried entrelac before and liked seeing how the knitting stacked up from all of the little squares. It is an easy technique to do once you have it down while having the added bonus of looking complicated. The entrelac pattern that I found that I would love to try is The Lonely Socks Club Entrelac from Think Outside the Sox. The appeal of this sock is that it is entirely entrelac. The cuff, heel, and toe is entrelac along with the leg and the foot of the sock. It will be a challenge, but it will be an awesome challenge.

A few of the other sock patterns I have been interested in all have fairly unique construction. I haven't been sucked into the viral knitting of Skew when it first came out because I have a bias against toe up socks. I have no idea why I have a bias against them, but I do. But, I am completely willing to try toe up at least one time because Skew has such an interesting construction for the heel. Some of the others with interesting constructions that I am interested in are Double Heelix, Hexagons, Perpendicular, and Spiral Cables.

I also got two new sock books for Christmas: Knitted Socks East and West and Knitting Knee Highs. In East and West I am interested in making Samurai for my fiance and Fuji for me. Only I would put a toe on Fuji and make it into a complete pair of socks instead of having it be pedicure socks that it shows on the cover. In Knitting Knee Highs I am attracted to almost any pair of socks in the book, but I would like to start with Maid Marian.

As far as my favorite sock pattern goes, I think it might be Hermione's Everyday Socks. I have only knitted one pair, but it is such a nice pattern that I want to knit it again. It is also the socks that introduced me to the idea of having your heel flap lined with garter stitch to make picking up stitches even easier.

Now the only thing I have to do is to figure out which sock to knit first.