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I am obsessed with knitting socks!
When I was pregnant with my first baby, going through my nesting era, I tackled my first sock. It was a baby sock and the pattern was North Country Cotton Baby Socks. I found knitting in the round very cumbersome and I was a very tight knitter. I hated the ladders I got where the needles met but found myself fascinated with what seemed like the magical birth of a little sock through my hands.
I was soon surprised by another magical birth, that of my daughter, Lilly. She decided that she was ready to grace us with her presence at 31 weeks and threw my world upside down. I was so traumatized by the event that I literally forget how to knit. I had a cabled baby blanket I was working on for her and I tried to keep myself busy and optimistic in the NICU with it but I could not for the life of me remember how to knit. The yarn found its familiar loops around my hands but the connection just wasn’t there.
It took about a year for me to pick up my needles again. Nothing prepares a woman to become a mother but having one’s child arrive early is so scary. I was in Atlanta at the time, away from my home and family it just made it that much more challenging.
I’m blessed to report that my baby girl is now a healthy ten year old that you would not believe once weighed 3lbs 7oz at birth. I found fortitude and healing through my crafts. Sewing and knitting were my therapy.
There’s something about working with my hands and the repetitive nature of knitting that I find meditative. I started knitting socks again and joined the HiyaHiya knit alongs on Ravelry.
I loved the community of knitters in the groups and the challenge of knitting new designs. I also found that with a deadline I am far more likely to complete both socks and avoid that dreaded second sock syndrome.
Life happened, we moved back home to California, we had our second child and I stopped knitting for about 8 years. I got into my sewing era. So much so that I went to fashion school as soon as my daughters were both in school and I had a little bit of time for myself.
I was at a playdate with a friend and she was enthusiastically telling me about these hats that she had been knitting. It was her enthusiasm that really reignited that knitting desire in me. (Thank you Summer XOXO)
I went back through my knitting things and to my surprise HiyaHiya was still running sock knit alongs. I jumped in and joined the Sep/Oct 2024 KAL thinking it would be cake to knit a toe up sock. IT WAS SO HARD! I don’t remember it being that hard, but I’ve done it before so I knew I could do it I just needed to relearn some things. I found myself going through all my books and searching YouTube constantly but gosh darn it, I did it. I’m not one to give up easily on things.
I was the only person in the KAL, it’s much more quite there now compared to October of 2015 when I participated in my first one. Participants are given two months to complete a pair of sock and a series of clues are given out once a certain part of the sock is completed. If you don’t complete the socks by the deadline you have to pay for the pattern. If you do finish them then you get into a drawing for a free pattern e-book. Everyone that completes the sock though gets the KAL pattern at no cost.
Here are some pictures of my socks. The green ones are the toe up socks I started out with. I frogged the toe several times before I just kept going. Wrap and turns are not my jam. I have been practicing though and plan on completing another toe up sock pair soon. For now I’m indulging myself in the simplicity of cuff down socks. In fact the same Sail Lace pattern was presented for the December/January 2025 KAL so I jumped into that KAL as well.
I didn’t quite make the deadline for the cuff down socks even though I did find them easier to knit. Mom life just happened and those babies of mine don’t care what my craft deadlines are.
I highly recommend the HiyaHiya KALs I am in no way sponsored although I absolutely love my 9” HiyaHiya circulars. I just feel a connection to the KALs because of the time in my life I spent knitting with them while my baby was a toddler. Sock knitting has just brought me so much joy and it truly is therapeutic.
Thank you for visiting my blog my name on Ravelry is 00yrnlvr00, maybe I’ll see you there or may we find each other in a HiyaHiya KAL.
