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Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?
So over the last couple of weeks, I knit these socks:
(sorry this pictures is so bad, IDEK)
Pattern: Manly Aran Socks by Wendy Johnson from Knitted Socks for Everybody
Yarn: Cascade Heritage Paints
Needles: US 1s
Mods: None
Recipient: WWFY swap, presumably to go to a gigantic man. I knit the large size upon request and these are BIG SOCKS. And they TOOK FOREVER. And I have to KNIT ANOTHER PAIR.
So I knit these socks. And they were possibly the most complicated cabling thing I’ve done to date. Lots of twisting, lots of chart-following, lots of complicated little cables. But here’s the thing: I understand how cables work. I know how to get them to turn left and right and over and under. After I figured out how to do a basic open cable, I suddenly got cables. Which means once I’d finished a whole repeat of the cable pattern for these socks (I knit them two at a time like a boss), I pretty much had the pattern memorized. YES.
WHICH MEANS that the socks I mentioned during last years Blog Week (The Viper Pilots of complication and DOOM? TOTALLY DOABLE NO PROBLEMS AT ALL. Cable patterns, top down, heel flap, and all.
LIKE A BOSS.
Blog about a pattern or project which you aspire to. Whether it happens to be because the skills needed are ones which you have not yet acquired, or just because it seems like a huge undertaking of time and dedication, most people feel they still have something to aspire to in their craft. If you don’t feel like you have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb, say so!
I’ll be honest: Because of my method of learning to knit and following philosophy (mentioned in yesterday’s post), I don’t think there’s much of anything in knitting that I couldn’t do. Cables? Check. Lace? Piece of cake. Colorwork? My tension needs a little work, but mostly something I can do. If I see a pattern I like, I queue it. If I MUST HAVE IT NOW, I start it. Some things need a little more concentration than others, and I have bypassed patterns for being boring or tedious (I’m lookin’ at you, every fingering weight sweater ever), but they’re all pretty doable.
For example, let’s look at these socks:
(Image copyright Glenna C)
They are, of course, Glenna C’s Viper Pilots. And they’re awesome. And they have like, nine different cable patterns going at the same time, PLUS they’re cuff down (I knit socks top-down), PLUS they have a heel flap (I’ve knit exactly one sock with a heel flap. It was in worsted weight acrylic. I don’t want to talk about it).
These are Intense Socks.
I feel many knitters with my level of skill/familiarity with things mentioned above would be much too intimidated to knit these socks. I’m almost too intimidated to knit these socks. But my love of Battlestar Galactica, cables, and socks meant I bought the pattern and some Red Heart Heart and Sole from Jo Ann’s.
And as soon as I’m home for the summer and I don’t have two research papers, a creative writing portfolio, and finals hovering over my head, these babies are goin’ on the needles.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 