I shied away from socks when I first started knitting. It wasn’t that I thought they were difficult, but I’d had a couple of shop owners ask me point blank if, since I was a man, I just knit socks. It kind of put me off socks, honestly. I somehow assumed that if I was knitting socks that people would assume that socks were all that I could knit.

I have no need to be an apologist for men or sock knitters, but um… men knit, and socks aren’t just anything. They’re actually pretty detailed projects that anyone who knits socks recognizes as a fairly involved knitting project. That said, they’re really not hard to make, and they’re a little like chips. “Just one” is something of a joke. I posted recently that I had six ongoing sock projects in my knitting bag presently. It wasn’t an exaggeration. Actually, I missed one.

Sock 1:

Toe up socks in Schaefer Anne using a short row toe and heel.

Sock 2:

Toe up socks in Schaefer Lola with Jo Sharp Classic DK Wool toes, heels, and cuff knit using a reverse toe chimney and afterthought heel.

Sock 3:

Yeah, this one doesn’t quite count, I suppose, but it’s Rob’s version of the socks I’m knitting for myself in Sock 2. Obviously, this one hasn’t made it onto the needles yet.

Sock 4:

This is second of my original Dog’s Breakfast socks. It’s mate is already being worn with random other completed socks. This one’s about to be ripped, though. I’m a bit snug on tension, and I’ve now worked out how to get the striping to go all the way to the toe. Oh, and it’s a random variegated and two jacquard striped 50g balls out of stash. I think they’re all old Regia colorways, but I sincerely can’t remember. Of course, the bands are long gone.

Sock 5:

Koigu version of the same sock. This is the one on which I worked out how to get the striping to go all the way to the toe. It is a bit thin for me, so it’s getting ripped, too, to be reknit in my size.

Sock 6:

Yet another Dog’s Breakfast Sock. This one is a strand of Schaefer Anne (handpaint), one strand of Ornaghi Filati Luna Park (self-striping), and one strand of Sandnesgarn Lanett (solid).

Sock 7:

Argyles of my own design in four shades of Louet Gems Sport.

That seems like enough, no? No. There is also Sock 8: the mate to an Interlacements Toasty Toes sock that I’m already wearing… frequently with mate to Sock 4. I’d like to get to work on Sock 9, too, but that’s the mate to another Koigu sock for which the yarn hasn’t been unpacked since we moved from Columbus, Indiana to Lansing over two-and-a-half years ago. Oddly enough, Rob and I are talking about doing some work on the house to actually start settling in, so that might turn up sooner than I’d have originally expected. And Sock 10? Well, that’s undecided as yet, but I’m really looking forward to seeing the new Twisted yarns that Meg’s currently dyeing for us.

Does this constitute a psychosis?

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