Culinary Colors

 

 
Month 2008    

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If you haven’t heard of the socknitters group on Yahoo, you’ve been buried under your pile of yarn too long. This group is comprised of over 12,000 members, all fellow sock knitting enthusiasts. And of that number, 11,999 have the disease. What?... No?... I stand corrected, that number is wrong… (I suspect there are closet one-sock knitters who just won’t admit it). In any case, you will find on their site a wonderful little online course guiding you through the “2-circs, 2-socks method.” Nifty.

For those who not only hoard yarn, but are also hooked on books about knitting with yarn, here is a selection of choices to satisfy your craving, while at the same time, help cure you of onesockitis. Although I don’t have copies of either books and haven’t had a chance to check them out myself, the reviews I read are pretty good. 2-at-Time-Socks, written by Melissa Morgan-Oakes, includes directions for using ONE circular needle to knit two socks at once. The book also gives you many sock patterns to inspire you to test the efficacy of the cure.

Ready to double the dose? Antje Gillingham wrote Knitting Circles Around Socks: Knit Two at a Time on Circular Needles. The book tells you how to use TWO circular needles, to make a pair of socks from the top down. Just imagine the look on the face of non-knitters when they see you working with two 40-inch circulars at once, with socks slowly growing from them. Just tell them you signed up for the Dish Network, and the needles are Bluetooth antennas. It’s fun to mess with their minds.

 

In Stitches
Is the sock on the other foot…or not?
by Helene Rush

There are days I wish we were not bipeds. That Mother Nature had adapted us to stand on one foot. Or that socks were worn on the nose. I wish for any reason to get away with knitting only one sock.

I admit it. I am afflicted with onesockitis.

Why is it that our enthusiasm wanes when it comes to making the second sock in a pair? We will, after all, gladly begin yet another sock of a different color or style. I mean, don’t we all periodically knit sweaters with a mostly identical front and back, and let’s not forget…now what do we call those…oh, yeah, matching SLEEVES!

I am at least comforted by the knowledge that I am not alone. This dreaded disease has struck many a knitter. All you have to do is look down and see all the unmatched socks being paraded around. Too pretty to leave behind in the drawer, but sadly mismatched, without a perfect mate. What…? You don’t wear your mismatched socks? Oh dear, how embarrassing. Can you say “faux pas” or did I just put my “foot in my mouth?” (Puns totally intended :-)

But behold! Some Einstein-ish knitters have been holed up in their basement laboratories, slaving over bubbling beakers and Mason jars full of odd-sized needles, knitting and frogging, searching for the cure for onesockitis, also known as “the Dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.”

Kory Stamper writes about how she devised a way to knit one sock inside the other, at the same time. Her Knitty.com article is detailed and illustrated. I always say knitting is as easy as knit and purl, but Kory’s found a way to befuddle the knitting mind, but in a totally good way. Hey, if you want two matching socks, you gotta take your medicine.

 

  

 

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