Let’s Talk Sock Knitting

I’ve been knitting for quite some time now and one thing that I love to do is knit socks. If you follow me on social media, then you have seen me knitting socks or showing off a pair of my most recently completed socks. There are a lot of reasons for this, but a few of my top are they are quick projects, easy to carry, and only take one skein of yarn to make. While I know this, I also think that this is one of the reasons that so many knitters became knitters to knit socks.

Over the past few months, I’ve spoken to a lot of knitters. They’ve told me that the top reason for learning to knit was that they wanted to learn how to make socks. They were I intrigued by their construction and wondered if they were up for the challenge of figuring it out. To my surprise, many of these same knitters never actually pick up needles to knit the socks because they are so intimidated by the process…some even make multiple pairs of socks, but never wear them.

Believe it or not, this is very common. One of the first things I learned to make, as a new knitter, over 17 years ago was a pair of socks. I dove right into the deep end of sock making. I started with a multi-cabled sock pattern and was so excited about finishing. That being said, I was stopped in my tracks when second sock syndrome hit me.

If you don’t know what this is, it’s when a knitter makes one sock and has a lot of trouble starting and finishing the second sock, so it seems that it will never get done. For many that suffer with second sock syndrome, this process continues for multiple projects. When I say multiple, I mean there are knitters out there that have 20 single socks, waiting the other, so it can actually be considered a pair.

Like I said, I went through this in the beginning of my knitting journey. I no longer struggle with this because I learned how to avoid it and motivate myself to get that next sock completed. Some people choose to knit their socks two-at-a-time, but I’ll leave that for another post. I have a lot to say around the topic.

As I was saying before, a lot of knitters get overwhelmed with the sheer idea of knitting socks and never actually accomplish their goal of making them for themselves. There are even complications with which types of socks to make, which yarn to use, and how to not create holes in socks when making them. It seems like a lot, and I know it feels like it to them, but when dealt with the right way, all of these problems can be overcome, so you can get to knitting those socks you really wanted to make.

So think about it for a moment. How is your relationship with sock knitting? Is there something keeping you from making socks or diving deeper into sock knitting? Are you one of the knitters mentioned above that struggle with second sock syndrome? Whatever your position, do you want to get deeper into sock knitting?

If so, leave a comment below and sign up for my newsletter to receive encouragement to help you be the best knitter you can be.