I’ve been learning to knit socks, which is the biggest pleasure the universe could have granted me at this time. It is delightful beyond words. I actually don’t know how to describe how much joy it brings me.
I’ve been thinking about knitting socks for weeks if not months. The other day when walking around in Indre By (downtown Copenhagen), perusing Bog&Ide, I spotted a book called “No Fear Sock Knitting”. I didn’t buy it that day, thinking I should just find a free pattern and a YouTube tutorial to get me started. But I happened to pass by again next week, and I couldn’t resist. At the time, it felt like an irresponsible impulse buy, but in hindsight I can see it’s one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time. It has brought so much knowledge, understanding, and happiness. It’s been great to just sit with a book in front of me and go back and forth between the pages without having to fiddle with buttons on a screen and catch it before it turns off. I had to watch a couple of videos on my own to understand some of the techniques, but after that I could just reference the book.
From the last of the baby beanie hat emerged my very first half sock. I was just looking for a practice run before my actual sock yarn arrived.
Sock knitting is a little difficult. I’m glad I did a practice run. I knew going in that I didn’t have enough yarn, so I felt free to experiment and go back when something didn’t feel right without fear.
I did go back many times. I think I unraveled my yarn to try again at every single step.
I somehow managed to add extra stitches to each row in my heel, making it fan out like a trapezium (I had to look up that word). Then I messed up my turns in my heel turn section because I added in an extra step I had seen someone do on YouTube. Didn’t turn out great… so I was pretty psyked when it started to actually look like a sock.
We were also dog sitting my parents’ neighbor’s dog. Meet Ellie.
Knitting in a dog park by the way? Exquisite.
My sock yarn arrived. Alice it’s called. It’s a mix of linen and wool. Everyone says you’re supposed to have some nylon in your sock yarn for durability but the sock knitting book said not to take it so seriously. Not sure what to think, so I got this as a test. If it wears out fast I will report back and learn from my experience.
This is about as far as I’ve made it on my actual socks. The yarn feels a little rustic, but it knits up beautifully.
I could stare at it all day.