The Sock

Back in the day, my mother told me that socks were virtually impossible to knit.  This from a woman who could knit an afghan and smoke a pack of cigarettes all while watching TV.  I took her at her word.  After all, I have great difficulty concentrating with my knitting.  I cannot do work that has lace patterns or rows to keep track of when I am doing something else.

I am learning quite a bit these days.  Because I have so much time on my hands, I delight in reading about and looking at pictures of knitting.  When I saw  the book Getting Started Knitting Socks by Ann Budd I decided I simply had to give sock knitting a try.  (Actually, I think my mom's words were always in the back of my head.  You know, tell someone they can't do something and immediately they want to give it a go.)  And it worked!

I did make some errors -- none of which are evident in the construction of the sock itself.  My biggest problem is that while I did knit to gauge, I did not measure my foot accurately.  Hence a sock that is too small for my foot.  But Tyler is game and is excited to receive a pair of hand-knitted socks from his mom.  That the color is a soft celery seems not to bother him in the least (though what should I expect from a kid who wears cowboy boots with shorts?).  Anyway, Julia has also expressed interest in a pair of hand-knit socks.  We picked out a pretty color for her socks and eventually I will have that yarn on my needles.

So, the lesson here is that one should not listen to naysayers.  Give a project a try; ask for help if and when it's needed; and enjoy a fun project that's easy to carry and practical to own.