I cast these socks on way back in February and finally cast them off a few days ago. It doesn’t normally take me months to knit a pair of socks, but I find that projects make little progress when you don’t ever actually pick them up and knit them.
At first I neglected them because I was knitting the eternally ruffled cardigans for my nieces, then I neglected them because they were designated as my on-the-go project for a period when I didn’t do much on-the-go knitting, and eventually I neglected them because I was spending more time sewing and I just wasn’t knitting anything at all.
After months of languishing unloved in a project bag the socks were finally lucky enough to be chosen when I had some knitting time last week. I had about six hours of travel time for our anniversary trip; four hours in the car back and forth to Grandma’s house and an hour each way on the train between there and London. That was long enough to take me from just beyond the heel to just about ready to begin the toe decreases which I finished a few days after I got back. Six months to knit a pair of socks is nothing to be proud of, but isn’t even close to my slowest ever sock record which is 10 months. Those were my first (and probably last) plain stocking stitch socks.
As you might expect from the slow progress on these, I liked the pattern, but I didn’t love it. The stitch pattern was simple enough to remember without having to keep checking the details, and the knitting was enjoyable enough, but I doubt I’ll knit another pair. I did like the short row heels however. I’m not a fan of picking up stitches so I’m not sorry to avoid a heel flap, but the first time I tried a short row heel I got a disappointing fit. So far these socks seem to fit much better, but I’ll have to wear them for a while to be sure. Even in England, summer isn’t the best time for wearing handknit socks, so it may be a while.
I’m still thinking about my pattern options for next week’s holiday knitting. I need something simple enough to knit in the car, but interesting enough that it won’t take me another six months to finish. It’s not as difficult to find likely candidates as you’d expect, so I have a shortlist of around a dozen patterns and I’m trying to narrow it down to one or two. It’s not too hard when I know I’ll probably knit them all sooner or later.
