Socks, socks and more socks!!

Hello lovely people reading my ramblings.

Do you knit socks?

I have been doing it for a couple of years now and I wrote (click if you want to look back) about how I got started, and how I very quickly discovered that, for me, sock knitting was about trying out all the different ways it could be done.

That was when I was about to present my very first sock-knitting workshop and it’s on my mind because I am going to the lovely Just Makers in North Yorkshire on Sunday for my very first workshop of the year and it is going to be a sock-knitting day.

This is making me happy.

I have been missing these days when I get to spend time with eager knitters ready to spend a few hours learning about an aspect of knitting that they have never tried before. They are special days for me and I don’t know when the next one will be so I am going to make the most of it.

Here’s a quick look back at some past workshops …

If all goes well in the world then I hope that there will be lots more days of fun and learning and chat and cake in the not too distant future.

The knit-a-long was a valuable distraction from the fact that I was missing getting out and about and I loved running it so now it’s all over,I feel like I’m missing that as well !!

Anyway back to the socks.

At the weekend I knitted a very cute mini sock which is what I am going to get the participants of the workshop to do. I’ve made a video tutorial of the process so that after the workshop my new sock-knitters can go home and practise again. I am hoping they will find this a useful addition to the day.

Before I entered the sock-knitting world, I never really thought about the variety that could be found in the domain of knitting socks.

You can use different techniques for knitting socks. You can knit them on double-pointed needles, which feels quite traditional or you can use circular needles. If you choose circulars then there are short circulars which are just long enough to hold all of your stitches, there are longer ones which require using magic loop (sounds like there might be a big mystery with this but NO it is very easy and quite magical) and then you can do both of your socks at the same time which is super duper handy in many ways. When you’ve tried all of these you can then think about different types of heels construction, playing with your toes, knitting toe-up or top-down and trying out the host of patterns and styles so you are never ever getting bored my dears.

This year is I have made a start at recording different ways of creating your socks. I did mention this fact in my last blog when I had completed 2 pairs of socks using 4 dpn’s for one sock, a short circular for its pair and a pair of socks using magic loop.

Currently I have on my needles a pair of socks being knitted 2-at-a-time top down and another pair being knitted 2-at-a-time toe up.

When I get it all done and edited there might be another online workshop or knit-a-long if the wind is in the right direction!

Until then keep knitting and happy. 🙂