I'm also a Knitter with a Capital K

My posts lately have been all about the sewing.  Sewing bras, my SWAP plans, my completed SWAP garments, my failed-ish attempt at lounge wear...but sewing nonetheless.  My goals posts usually have a knitting section, but I realized that I don't often show off my finished knitted garments/items here.

I've been a knitter for a LONG time, my grandmother taught me initially when I was around four (yup, 4), but I didn't become really prolific at it until my girls were born, so about 28 years ago or so.  Now, you will very likely find me with some knitting in my hands any time I'm sitting down and not at work.

Today's post is all about the socks.  I knit socks.  All.  The.  Time.  I consistently have a pair of Plain Vanilla socks on the go - plain vanilla for the uninitiated is just as it sounds - a pair of socks that are a plain stitch, which means I use only the knit stitch in the round.  This makes them great for knitting while watching TV, or in line somewhere, or at the movies, or as a passenger in a car, on a train or in a plane (in a box with a fox), but mostly it makes them great for using wildly crazy sock yarn.

I have set a goal for myself to knit 20 pairs of socks in 2018.  Last year I managed to finish 17.5 pairs.  I only finished the first sock of the last pair during 2017, and completed second sock of that pair in the first week of 2018, but it's a weird pair that straddles the years so I'm not really counting it in the 2018 goal.  Anyway, I've been knitting like mad since the new year.  I have a million skeins of sock yarn (well, only a close exaggeration, but not far off) and wanted to use them instead of buying a new sock club (where sock yarn shows up every month or two in your mailbox and you don't know what colour its going to be until you open the package), so I asked my daughter for her help.  I set her loose on my sock yarn stash, and gave her twelve paper lunch bags and asked her to choose 12 skeins, one for each month.  She wrote the month on the outside of each bag, put the yarn in and then sealed the bags.  I have no idea what colour I'll be getting or what yarn for that matter.  Voila, my own personal sock club.



In addition to the PSC, I routinely knit socks for my family for each of their birthdays, plus at least six more pairs for Christmas presents, and that adds up to quite a few pairs.

Somehow this has turned into bragging about how many pairs I can knit, but what I really wanted to show you was what I've already accomplished this year.  Without further ado, here are the seven pairs I've already completed in 2018:

#1 - I knit this pair for my youngest daughter's boyfriend.  I somehow screwed up the stitch count on the pair I made him for his birthday last year and they were a bit tight on him, so I told him to give those ones to my daughter, and with much haste (and embarrassment, though my daughter was very pleased) knitted him a new pair.



#2 - my first pair from the Personal Sock Club (PSC), January edition.  I just love the bright colours in these.  That's also why my daughter picked this particular yarn, because our winter can be dull and dreary and she wanted to brighten up my day.

 

#3 - I have had my eye on this yarn for a while, so when I finished my PSC for January, I just couldn't wait to cast these on.



#4 - February PSC socks - this colourway!  this yarn!! so soft.  This is where I started deviating from the Plain Vanilla socks and added a bit of texture.  But the textured pattern I chose for this one is easy but super cool!

#5 - I affectionately call these the Love Sick socks.  I cast them on on Valentine's Day as a gift to me, but then promptly got sick.  I was so sick I didn't even knit.  That's super sick as anyone who knows me will tell you.  As I started getting better, I finished the pair while confined to the couch, watching the Olympics.

#6 - Easter Egg Birthday Socks - these are for my mom for her birthday.  I'm giving them to her after her actual birthday, but I don't think she'll complain ;)

#7 - Moar Birthday Socks - my dad's birthday is less than two weeks after my mom's.  That makes for difficult knitting deadlines, but again, I don't think he'll complain that he gets them after his birthday either. 

If I can keep up at this rate (my math says its average of 3 pairs per month, but I've also been known to get math horribly wrong), I'll be at my goal by by the end of August, with time to spare for more Christmas knits.  I do want to get a sweater or two done this year too though, so who knows how many I'll be able to accomplish.  I'm already half way through two more pairs which I'm absolutely loving (YASSS!!!)

Pairs in progress:


You can see all my knitting projects on Ravelry, my name there is Tonia2000.

What about you?  Are you a knitter?  Are you on Ravelry?