for Christmas that year, and having heard so much about this book on various podcasts, I decided it was time. I love sock knitting and the patterns didn't look that complex. I know a lot of people had problems with the socks and found them too challenging, but I'm one of those knitters who thinks nothing is too challenging. All of the other things I'd knit so far seemed easy. I'd decided to use some Serenity Sock Yarn
, which was pretty much the only yarn I'd had on hand. I pulled out my needles, and off I went, knitting like a mad woman.The first problem I came across was the darkness of the yarn in comparison to the darkness of my house. Dark yarn, dark house, and complex knitting project can make for difficult pattern reading. I was having a hard time actually seeing what I was doing half the time, which made it a challenging knit. Every time I made a mistake I had a bear of a time with the yarn I'd undone. The yarn just wasn't ideal for the project, yet I struggled through.
Then it was the pattern that made me want to rip my hair out. If I wasn't knitting on the socks at every free moment, I got lost every time I put the pattern down. I started to cry one day saying that these socks just didn't want to be made. I called Cookie A evil and swore I'd never knit any of her socks again. It was just too hard and it was so unfair. Keep in mind, this was February. I'd had my baby in the end of December. I was an emotional train wreck! I'm sure that and the distractions of a new baby weren't helping. It wasn't exactly a good time for me.
About two months later I decided I was going to dedicate all my time to finishing the first sock. I had finished one whole pattern repeat and was halfway through the next. Unfortunately, the sock was not meant to be. I took one look at the stretched out cuff and realized there was no way it would ever fit legs as thick as mine, and my legs aren't all that thick! These socks were never going to fit, so I gave up. The book was put away and I'd pretty much forgotten about it for a year and a half.
Lately I've been getting back into knitting. I've finished the seasons shawl I knit, which was such a challenge that I feel I can take on everything. I followed that up with another shawl that took near no time at all to knit. Then I threw in a couple small projects. I've still got ends to weave in and blocking to do, but I feel pretty good about myself as a knitter lately. Things have been moving off my needles with a quickness.
About a week or so ago I bought myself a new skein of sock yarn. It was a Heritage Handpaints in beautiful pink and purple. The color is called Azalea Blooms. I'd found it at the LYS when I was conveniently looking for sock yarn. I wasn't able to pick it up that day. I just don't have the yarn budget to be a knitter (well, maybe if I used knitting as a substitute for enough store bought stuff!) so I don't have a huge amount to spend. If I'm going to spend over $20 on a pair of socks, it had better be the best yarn in the world, at least in my perspective at the time. By the time I'm done knitting my socks I know I'll have something beautiful, but it's just never seemed worth it unless I'm completely in love with the socks. In this case I was so in love with the yarn that I actually asked the yarn store owner to hold on to it until I could get the money to her.
When I got the yarn home I refused to knit it. I've never been one to stash yarn, not really. My yarn stash is tinier than most yarn stashes are. I like to get my yarn balled up right away so I don't have to go back to the yarn store to do it. It also means I'm more likely to use the yarn right away. I don't like having yarn sit around, neglected, unused. It seems kind of pointless to have then, except in those days when we've really got no money for yarn, which is sadly frequent these days. So with the yarn all balled up and ready to go, I had to find a pattern to knit. I didn't just want to find a good pattern. It had to be the perfect pattern. I pulled out New Pathways for Sock Knitters
, only to be disappointed. My next choice was Cookie A.
Opening the book I told myself I could pick a simpler pattern this time. I didn't have to go all out with something crazy. I didn't have to go for the hardest pattern I could find. Some of them seemed really pretty and simple, but I needed something that would work with this beautiful yarn. It took some time before I could really find something that screamed out to me, the same pattern that screamed to me from the first time I picked the book up, the Vilai socks. The beautiful combination of cables and lace screamed out to me. The complexity of it all seemed the perfect challenge. I'd managed the crazy lace of the season's shawl, and after that, anything seemed possible. The pattern didn't look that hard to follow and I was pretty confident in my ability to read my own knitting so I wouldn't lose my place in the pattern. These socks screamed that they needed to be knit with this beautiful new yarn. It was a match made in heaven, and I was ready for it.
This time everything just seemed to work out. It was as thought the yarn and the needles both knew exactly what I expected them and they all decided to get along. The yarn looks so beautiful as I knit up each row. It's a little more striped than I had hoped, but somehow it just works. I'd decided I needed happy socks, and happy socks are what I'm getting. These socks make me smile. After all the hard work that will go into them, I know these will take a place in my favorite socks. How could they not? This is the most challenging pattern I've ever done. (That being said, I've only made two pairs of socks for myself prior to this, one of which got felted, so it's not going to be hard to make that list right now.) I can't wait to see them finished. If nothing else, it'll be nice to tackle something I wasn't able to get through previously. Maybe it's just one of those things where I needed the right yarn before I was able to make it work. Here's hoping.
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