Monday, April 24, 2006

socks scare me

I'm finishing up the baby hat, but shipped off the other hat and pairs of assorted booties today to Afghans for Afghans. I'll finish the hat and mail it off for their next collection date, hopefully with a baby jacket/soakers or an adult sized hat or something "new to me" where I can spread my wings a bit. But as for right now... I'm very ready to move on to something different.

I have an idea of what I want to do next- or at the very list, a list of ideas of what I want to do in the next few months.

Socks scare me. It seems odd, feeling nervous and overwhelmed by something that others find so easy. I don't know if it's the directions which seem to be in a completely alien tongue to me (I can't seem to understand the concept of a heel, no matter how many books I read). Maybe it's the idea of all those needles. There's all sorts of ways to screw them up, I just know it. But regardless, I want desparately to knit socks.

I have my assortment of sock yarn (knitpicks to start, and koigu and henry's attic tucked away and I'm dying for a skein of Socks that Rock) I have a sock book (Sensational Knitted Socks) that I can't wait to read once my evening graduate courses and done for the semester, and many, many sock websites bookmarked. I think socks would be ideal for me, portable that are on a small enough scale I can work on them between work and school. I look over knitting blogs and covet all their yummy socks- but the idea of me... Me! knitting socks just makes me nervous.

Therefore, I have determined I must learn how to do them, in the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt's words: "You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."

Booga Bag: I can't wait to start this. I'm going to pick up needles tomorrow on my way to training (I'm taking a course on "Stress Management for Women", although I suspect if my employer would just have paid the same money for a massage and gave me a free day off, I'd de-stress just fine.)

Entrelac: I have decided to make my Booga Bag before attempting this technique, mostly because I am still figuring out what to do with it. I adore Lady E but fear it would be a better idea to wait since I have A) slow knitting skills and B) limited time schedule and C) gut feeling that I should practice this technique before cutting my teeth on such a gorgeous pattern.

More dyeing: I need to set aside the time to play. Only three more weeks!

The dog who loves to carry socks in her mouth - I need to work on breaking that habit before I learn how to knit my own or I'll have a heart attack.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have never made socks before and told myself I never would. But this weekend I went to my LYS and am now working on two socks on two circular needles. I recommend it!

k said...

Did your LYS teach you, or did you just pick up the items and teach yourself? Two socks on two circs!

I'm very impressed! I'm just not sure where to start, and I think the idea of using more than two needles is intimidating me.

Anonymous said...

I was nervous about knitting socks too so I knit a stocking first. It's basically the same as a sock but much bigger. Then I used the Yankee Knitter basic sock pattern (which has patterns for baby-adult in 3 weights of yarn) and blindly followed the pattern. The heel made no sense but I took each word as it came and a heel was knit! What a feeling of accomplishment. I prefer to knit my socks on 5 needles (4 to hold the stitches and 1 to knit with). Remember you only knit with 2 needles at a time, the others just hold the stitches.
Good Luck! Jump in. Give socks a try!!
Karen
http://nothingbutknit.blog-city.com/

k said...

Thanks for the encouragement- I'm going to look for that pattern. I picked up my needles for the Booga Bag today since I've made myself wait almost a whole month to knit up my Kureyon, but I promised myself SOCKS ARE NEXT.

Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

I just learned to knit socks this past January, and quite honestly I was scared at first too...they looked intimidating to me. However, I found a simple sock pattern (it actually came on the yarn I used) and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Now I love to knit socks, and I'm even starting to venture into new heels as well...well ok, so I have only done one so far (on one sock, not one pair), but I have to start somewhere.

I also want to do the booga bag, and might start it soon, but not until I get April's socks done for the Sock A Month KAL.

k said...

I started my booga bag today! I didn't get very far since I only had my lunch hour but it felt so nice to work on something larger than a baby bootie for a change of pace.