I do not like them, Sam I Am. I do not like...
Socks! I’m going to be the lone Sock Flop in this Sock Hop. So far I’m hating this project—and there isn’t all that much of it to hate.
My pattern is LynnH’s First-time Toe-up sock but I can’t blame it on her. Lynn’s instructions are as clear as a bell with excellent illustrations. I’m using Cascade Fixation #9862 yarn (at least the colors are wonderful) and #4 DPNs and I just hate this itty bitty yarn and these itty bitty needles. I can’t see the itty bitty stitches! I can’t count the rows because they’re too small and close together. (Can you hear my teeth grinding?)
(This is the good side. It looks like it might grow up to be a sock one day.)
Just to prove how miserable I am, I made a mistake in the last row and I’m NOT ripping it out and fixing it, mostly because I won’t be able to see the stitches well enough to pick them up again. Normally, I insist on ripping out mistakes because I don’t want anyone to know I made any, being a proud perfectionist. (BTW, did you know that myopic people tend to be picky perfectionists? My eye doctor just told me that. Before this project ends, I’m probably going to be making another trip to her office to get my glasses strengthened.)
(This is the bad side. It needs to be sent to one of those special schools for disciplinary problems. It has its own ladder for climbing out the window of the dorm to go drinking.)
So there, all you Sock Pollyannas. Meet the Sock Grouch.
My pattern is LynnH’s First-time Toe-up sock but I can’t blame it on her. Lynn’s instructions are as clear as a bell with excellent illustrations. I’m using Cascade Fixation #9862 yarn (at least the colors are wonderful) and #4 DPNs and I just hate this itty bitty yarn and these itty bitty needles. I can’t see the itty bitty stitches! I can’t count the rows because they’re too small and close together. (Can you hear my teeth grinding?)
(This is the good side. It looks like it might grow up to be a sock one day.)
Just to prove how miserable I am, I made a mistake in the last row and I’m NOT ripping it out and fixing it, mostly because I won’t be able to see the stitches well enough to pick them up again. Normally, I insist on ripping out mistakes because I don’t want anyone to know I made any, being a proud perfectionist. (BTW, did you know that myopic people tend to be picky perfectionists? My eye doctor just told me that. Before this project ends, I’m probably going to be making another trip to her office to get my glasses strengthened.)
(This is the bad side. It needs to be sent to one of those special schools for disciplinary problems. It has its own ladder for climbing out the window of the dorm to go drinking.)
So there, all you Sock Pollyannas. Meet the Sock Grouch.
posted by Nancy Herkness at 7:40 AM
10 Comments:
Oh you poor thing! Your first socks with tiny needles and sock yarn??? If you were one of my first timer students, I'd have you knit "boot socks" with at least sport or dk weight yarn!
BTW, almost all of my socks have some (imperceptable) "fatal flaw," and I too am myopic. For other projects, I rip back; for socks, not so much.
Your work looks beautiful to me, Nancy. I'm not sure I would've loved knitting socks if I'd started out with toe-ups. They're less forgiving--at least they haven't been terribly forgiving to me. I dropped sock knitting for about a year and a half and didn't finally fall in love w/the process until I made a pair with Fortissima Colori Sandra'd given me and the pretty colors (I can be so shallow) won me over.
This is the bad side. It needs to be sent to one of those special schools for disciplinary problems. It has its own ladder for climbing out the window of the dorm to go drinking.
=D
You may be a sock grouch, but at least you're still a good humored sock grouch! I hope the knitting gets better for you! And I agree with Barbara, it looks great to me.
You guys are incredibly nice to say that my sock disaster looks fine. That's true friendship: to be able to lie through your teeth with a straight face.
Loribird, I have decided to take your advice. I am going back to my LYS and getting giant yarn and giant needles so I can be a Sock Pollyanna like the rest of you guys. Jean, I'm going to look into whatever this Magic Loop thing is since you say it's tolerable.
As for the discipline problem, well, it's getting totally frogged and, for once, I'll enjoy every second of doing it.
Nancy, I've been thinking about your post and this has to be said: if you're not having fun STOP DOING IT! If socks aren't your thing right now but entrelac is, then hie thee to the entrelac side of the aisle post haste. This is LEISURE TIME activity, not home work. You're supposed to be happy when you do it.
Maybe next year socks will call out to you and the process will click for you. Maybe it never will. Twice I tried to love knitting lace. Twice I considered playing in traffic or putting my head in the microwave. Lace is beautiful. I yearn for it. But I HATE KNITTING IT.
So I don't. At least not right now.
I equate this with the book nazis who tell you what you must and must not read in your spare time. To hell with that! Read what makes you happy. Knit what makes you happy. God knows there are few enough times in life when we can do exactly what we want.
This is one of 'em. Make yourself happy first! Love from BB (off her soapbox now)
PS: Maybe you'll love Magic Loop???
I agree with BB, Nancy. This should be fun. Which is why I'm doing slipper socks for my first project. No way could I have done DPNs and yarn in such teeny sizes. Right now I'm binding off the toes with a three-needle bind off and ... mmmh, it's a little more difficult than I anticipated.
Nancy - Who knew frogging could be so satisfying, eh?
Nancy, I knit for almost 20 years before casting on my first pair of socks. Other projects and techniques were more appealing, and all the sock knitting enthusiasts in the world couldn't persuade me otherwise.
Now I knit socks, too, and like doing them pretty well. Like the others said, knit what you like.
And if you feel up to trying another pair of socks, try using 5 needles instead of 4. It'll cut down on the ladders. (Voice of experience here.)
Cascade Fixation is one of the most difficult yarns to work with for socks IMHO. You brave woman! Using it AND trying to figure out toe-up socks!
Do we need to do an intervention here? Would chocolate help? A nice glass of wine? I love the advice to put the project aside and try something else.
But let me say this: you're right that the colors in your Fixation are gorgeous! I think the sock you are doing looks wonderful! And as for little goofs.....that's what proves that they're hand made with love rather than machine made, right? It's like some people who scrapbook using only their computer and never handwriting anything because they hate the way their writing looks....PLEASE! It's an important memory to someone! Same goes for the little "design features" (read goofs) in our lovely hand-crafted pieces of knitting!
(Does this qualify me as one of the aforementioned "Pollyannas?" I'm still trying to decide how I might feel about that.........)
;-)
I love you guys! You make me feel like I'm not such a Sock Flop after all. Thanks for all the good practical and philosophical advice!
Okay, I'm happily going back to my entrelac until I have time to get to the LYS for the big needles.
BTW, chocolate and wine are always welcome, whether I'm knitting socks or not. Send 'em on over.
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