I had this great plan to write something for this blog every day this month. And now it’s the third of May and I’ve already blown it. It’s like my favorite thing to do in the world is come up with not even remotely grandiose plans that I subconsciously know I won’t carry out just to set myself up for disappointment again and again.
My excuse this time is that I spent most of the weekend in a fog of illness and all I could think about writing was “wah wah wah I am so miserable” and I really dislike those kinds of posts.
So instead I watched all of Season 7 of Buffy and knit.
– OMG is this going to be a blog post about knitting?
– I wasn’t planning on it, but um, yeah, I think so. It’s been a real long time, hasn’t it?
I finished these socks:
– OMG she finished a pair of socks. Do we even know her anymore?
— I know. I think the last pair of socks I finished was — hang on, let me refer to Ravelry — June 2008. These babies, to be specific:
And oh, I loved them.
Then the moths came.
Every single pair of socks I’d knit — gone. (Well, not GONE gone. But beyond repair.) And the tragedy left me without the will to knit on and re-sock my sock drawer for a long time.
(I still have moths. They come in waves. At this point I don’t know what they’re eating because what’s left of my yarn and knitted items hasn’t been attacked and isn’t likely to. Paper? Dust? Bad porn novels?)
But I kept queuing up patterns in Ravelry, shoring up for the time that I would once again get the sock knitting jones. Over the past year I’ve been accumulating sock yarn (exempt from the Unified Yarn Sanctions Act under the Replenishment Clause) and I have half-heartedly started several pairs of socks, but this is the first pair I felt strongly enough about to commit to and finish.
The pattern is Yarnissima’s “Firestarter” (a free Ravelry download). There are a number of elements that appeal to me as a sock knitter — toe-up method, interesting stitch pattern, a new technique (I’ve never done a heel flap/gusset from the toe up before), but what instantly got my attention was the way the cable pattern splits apart for the reverse stockinette gusset and then rejoins at the leg. So clever and elegant.
I used yarn from The March Hare that I picked up at Rhinebeck. (Wildflower colorway. I figured it was appropriate.) Knitting these took hardly any time at all, partly because I scrimped on the top ribbing. I wasn’t afraid of running out of yarn (I have so much left over) but I was getting bored. I knew that if I bound off the first sock and immediately started the second, I’d have a better chance of actually coming through with a pair.
So I finished the second sock at on Saturday (sometime before the girl I will only know as Millie learns she’s a Potential Slayer) and then immediately grabbed new yarn and needles to cast on for another pair. But then I realized I also wanted to knit a different pattern. And I’ve had an idea for socks for a couple months and I wanted to cast on for that as well.
Guess what I did.
– You cast on for all three.
– Bet your ass I did.
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