Fits and Starts

Does anyone else take forever to find a new sock pattern they want to start?

Or is it just me?

Take the start of Southern Summer of Socks. It was a public holiday and we were just sitting around waiting for the furniture arseholes to deliver our stuff. I pretty much used the morning to find which would be my first sock.

To be honest, I actually started the night before, staying up late so it was after midnight and I could say I really started on 1 October.

I believe I cast on no fewer than three different sock patterns. Couldn't tell you what they were now, oh except one was Pomatomus. Nothing felt right. Might have been the yarn I was using, too. I wasn't too keen on the Wildfoote. So thin!

I don't think I have commitment issues. Once I'm in, I'm loyal as all hell (hello steeked jacket!) but it's getting in. I tiptoe around, um and ah, wonder if I'm making the right choices, sneak glances at other patterns and other yarns, wondering if they would make me happier.

And last night, when I raced home to play with my new sock book, there was a mad flurry and digging through the stash, finding something that a)was semi solid or solid and b) didn't require winding it into a ball (Jojoland Melody) and looking for THE RIGHT PATTERN.

Have you seen 25 Favourite Socks? It's like a box of chocolates. Too much choice! I cast on Waving Lace eventually, (KMS, here's the answer to your question), worked my way through the rib and then stalled on the pattern. I wasn't focusing. I screwed it up. I’ve done stuff like it before so I’m not sure what the hold up was. I threw it down in disgust and went back to another sock I already had on the needles.

I think I need to approach starting new socks differently. This year has seen this exact pattern repeat itself over and over again. That’s why essentially I’ve only made about three different kinds of socks. They feel like a favourite cardigan. Put ‘em on and I’m happy.

I think the new approach should be to accept that the first time I try a new pattern, it’s not gonna work. So just go with it for a while, rip it out and try something else, knowing full well the first one was never gonna happen anyway. Thinking back, I reckon I probably cast on Monkey socks two or three times before it took.

Or maybe I should just finish the two socks that are on the needles, do some work on the jacket and let the ideas for a new pair of socks brew a bit.

Now there’s a novel idea.