Even though I really enjoy knitting easy and familiar patterns and letting my brain ease off after a long day of thinking and decision-making, I am also keen on learning new things. This time I decided to tackle something I probably should have taken on a long time ago: toe-up socks!
Now as I explained in my previous post, my grand-mother always knitted socks the same way, and that was the pattern she also taught me. Basically, I too have been knitting socks based on that same pattern, just doing some variations here and there. I noticed already a while back that many of the sock patterns I really like, e.g. on the super inspirational and beautiful 52 weeks of Socks book (by Laine Magazine), are knitted toe-up, and now my FOMO (fear of missing out) got just too severe.
I spent an evening watching videos about different ways of casting on, and since it didn’t seem like rocket-science (as if anything in knitting would be), I finally dared to try. I took my lovely skein of Wilhelmi sock yarn (70% Finnish sheep wool, 30% tencel, by Vuonue) and started working on the 3 Leaves -pattern (by Paula Pereira on 52 weeks of Socks).
After knitting socks with DPN’s for some 20 years, I can’t say that knitting with just two needles and having to push the stitches from needle to cable all the time felt as relaxing as my normal sock-knitting. It didn’t have the same rhythm, and I struggled to find the right grip. But many of the familiar elements that I love so much were there: the feel of high-quality yarn just flying through my fingers, the warmth and delicacy of the 2.5mm wooden needles (they feel like toothpicks after using thicker ones!) and of course, the quick progress.
After couple of evenings of knitting I found myself astonished of how my knits and purls on round needles suddenly took the form of a sock – with a heel and everything – just like that. The dreaded toe-up sock was just like any other knitting project: knits, purls, occasional yarn overs and nothing more. Nothing, except for the pure joy of creating something unique with your hands!
Still have to do the second sock, though, and that always feels a bit forced… Perhaps next sock skill to learn is to knit two socks at the same time?
