Sock Renaissance

According to my gallery for 2007, I completed 23 projects and only 2 of them were socks. Kind of ironic that the year I started Sock Madness was a year that I could barely bring myself to knit any socks at all. In fact, the two pairs that I did knit were both for swaps.

This year is off to a much faster start. I've already finished 13 projects and 7 of them are socks. It's the weirdest thing because I just can't seem to stop. Even more bizarre is the fact that the 2 socks that are providing such amusing and quick knits right now are socks that I couldn't get into at all in the past.

The orange sock is the second from my pair of Elfine's Socks. You can't see it in the picture but I just turned the heel on this sock and I'm swiftly working my way up the leg. I can say with certainty that this pair of socks will be finished by week's end which means the will be done just shy of the 2 year mark. The yarn is Koigu and the pattern is lovely and easy so I can only blame the lack of love for these socks in the past on my dislike of knitting 2 socks at a time. That's gotta be it.

The green sock is a Monkey Sock and it's my second try with this pattern. The first time I started it was in May of last year. I wanted to love it but I couldn't and after a few months I gave up and frogged it. I blamed it on the yarn, Plymouth Sockotta, which was a cotton/wool blend but the yarn I'm using this time is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Maya which is also a cotton/wool blend. Maybe it's the color. The other yarn was a stripey red and yellow while this is green with a little blue.

The more I think about it, the more I think it may come down to that indefineable something. Mojo! The last time I tried each of these patterns I couldn't feel the patterns at all. I knew the stitches but they just wouldn't sink in to my head so I never got any rhythm going. Now I am working on them and my fingers just seem to know what to do. The pattern feels intuitive and it's incredibly easy for me to read. The socks feel so good on my needles that it's hard to imagine a time without them.

Whatever the reason for my sock renaissance I'm really enjoying it. Who knows - I may even make a dent in my sock yarn stash. I doubt it though.