My socks are done! In only 4 days! And I hardly knitted on Tuesday… I never knew I could knit that fast! The socks are beautiful and the pattern has a very nice cast on method (but you do need some patience). The designer made some helpful YouTube videos to get you through the steps.
The pattern arrived on Sunday night, just when I was about to go to bed. So I only started knitting the Rose & Thorn Socks on Monday afternoon. I had to do the cast on twice, because I didn’t leave a long enought tail (which I found out after casting on about 40 of the 64 stitches).
After that came the fiddly part: joining in the round without losing stitches or adding a twist. That went okay, fortunately.
One more tricky thing to go: pulling one needle through the other and joining the stitches. That went okay, so I was set for knitting the rest of the sock! The pattern was nice, with lacey roses and cabley thorns. Not very difficult, though, the beginning of the sock is by far the most demanding part.
I didn’t have much energy to knit on Tuesday, because I had a job interview in the morning, but on Wednesday morning I finished the first sock. It fits quite nicely (a bit tight around the leg, but not so bad that I felt like redoing it). I cast on the second sock in the afternoon. Again I had to do that twice. The first time I messed up when I wanted to join in the round, I lost the last stitch and couldn’t figure out how to fix that anymore (low brain power, I guess). So I did it again and this time it went okay.
Only when I had knitted most of the round joining the stitches I found out that I was one stitch short. Oh no! A critical look revealed a dropped stitch at the beginning of the round… I picked it up with a crochet hook and had to unjoin almost a whole round! I mixed up my needles in the process, but managed to fix my mistake this time. Phew! Now on to the easy part.
Today I decided to do something useful first: my taxes. With that out of the way, I spent the rest of the day knitting (more or less). And now I’m done! Not just with the socks, but with knitting too. Well, that sounds a bit dramatic, it’s not that bad, I still love knitting. But I have found out that this kind of competitive knitting does not bring me much joy. I don’t like having the feeling that I cannot do certain things (like painting or shopping or spinning or cleaning the house) because I have to finish those socks! and it’s nagging at me. Which I still feel, even if I tell myself that I can take it easy and that it doesn’t matter whether I go on to the next round. I don’t like feeling restless like that when doing other things that I also value doing.
I did get through (I’m the twelfth member of team K to finish and there are 40 spots), but I have to strategize for round 2. Just keep my normal routine and not put everything on hold for a pair of socks. It would be okay if that would really give me joy, but it doesn’t, not that much. At least I have experienced that now! And the atmosphere of Sock Madness is really nice. The team members support each other (even though they compete with each other) and the patterns are interesting and inspiring. I’m glad I’m participating!
But I didn’t show you my finished socks yet! Here they are:
The colour looks too muted in the pictures, the camera just can’t capture it. But I’m really happy with these pretty socks! By the way, if you knit a lot, this is what it looks like:
