Small Town Hermit

This post really should come after a post about how I had the discipline to knit an entire sweater in eight days mostly because I stopped dithering about whether to start and when to start and which pattern to make and just sat down and knit the thing. Between that accomplishment and going for a walk first thing in the morning every morning for the past 19 days in a row, I am feeling downright disciplined. On the other hand, I was thinking that this post would be done sometime this afternoon, and it is almost 6:30 p.m., but I am not going to dwell on that fact. The point is that I haven’t called it a day yet because I can meet this goal, too, and add a few more. Bring on the plans!!

Right. So. Socktober. I mentioned my Socktober plan in a previous post, and today I got started.

If you aren’t a knitter, or even not a sock knitter, you might wonder what sort of craziness is afoot. (Ha!) Lots of knitters in the northern hemisphere get very excited about the transition from summer to autumn. The temperatures drop, the sun sets earlier, and the trees start shedding their leaves. You call it autumn. We call it knitting season — time to get out those hand knit sweaters and hats and gloves and mittens and … SOCKS.

Sock knitters can be something of a special breed. They are passionate about needle choices and knitting styles and yarn weight and fiber content and the best way to knit heels, toes, and gussets. Ankle socks or knee highs? Striping, cabled, lace, fair isle? Toe-up or top down? Magic loop, small circulars, or DPNs? And so on. Myself, I am a toe-up, magic loop, one at a time, Fish Lips Kiss Heel sock knitter, and if I am using sock\fingering weight yarn, I use two strands together to make thicker yarn.

I opened the silver satin bag labeled October 1 and extracted a small skein of yarn in a color named Hades. Given that the color integrates black with shades of turquoise and gray, I suspect that the inspiration is the depiction of the god Hades (entertainingly voiced by James Woods) in the animated Disney movie Hercules. Whatever the case, it’s a good start to the adventure.

I didn’t get quite as much practice and prep work done as I had hoped, so I am improvising as I go. The yarn in the box adds up to a bit more than six full skeins of yarn, which means at least six pairs of socks and quite possibly seven or eight. There is no need to make each pair the same way, although if I find a groove I like, I might stick with it.

Some aspects will be the same. They will all be worked upward from the toe. I will start with 16 stitches and increase to 48. I love the moment when the toe starts to take shape. It makes me happy every time.

From there I can stripe or color block. I might get crazy with some color work or slipped stitches, but I doubt it. There will likely be stitch patterns at some point. The beauty of having 48 stitches is that 48 is divisible by so many numbers that lots of patterns will work.

This first pair will be simple, starting out with the toe worked in the first color. Tomorrow I will add the second color and work, probably, three-row stripes of each. When the first color runs out, I will add the third color, and so on. There is the question of the heel. The type of heel I use really needs to be worked in the same yarn. Is that the fourth color, which could then be used as the cuff, too, or the toes on the next sock? I’m taking a “choose your own adventure” approach and will decide when I get there (and depending on how many stripes I get out of the first color.

In the meantime, I have two sock toes.

Tune in tomorrow …