Behold the socks that created my obsession! These were actually the third pair I knitted but the first ones that made me understand why knitted socks are so great.
The pattern is the classic Hermione's Everyday Socks, and the yarn is a special blend of all kinds of things including silk and bamboo, bought as a souvenir from a shop called Yarnia in Portland during a big US road trip we took in 2015. You can sort of see the different strands in it in this pic here.
These are my lucky socks. I wore them to job interviews, I wore them the day I got accepted into uni, and I wore them for confidence whenever I was doing something scary.
Alas, after years of heavy use, one of them has a hole in the ball of the foot and I expect the other one won't be far behind.
So given that for once I've managed not to overburden myself with Christmas crafting this year, I think my project for the holidays is going to be to learn how to fix these. At least they'll be usable for wearing around the house, and given they're 8 years old that's pretty good going really!
(Please excuse the wildly different colours from one image to the next, this was a long time ago and I did not know how to camera)
I think im going to have to investigate making my own socks at some point soon. I blast though (supposedly tough, but at least sustainable?) pairs of socks alarmingly quickly.
As someone who's never knit before, I'm hoping something like socks would be an approachable project for a beginner?
Oof. Socks are generally not considered a beginner's project, I'm afraid. Turning the heel and stitching the toe together at the end are easier done once you have a bit of comfort with what you're doing. You don't have to be an expert, though; even a couple of dishcloths could get you well on your way.
What I'd say is that the individual skills involved in knitting socks aren't very advanced, and a beginner could pick them up quite quickly. But because socks are so small and fiddly, they're not a great project to learn those skills on, if that makes sense? You'd be better off learning on a chunkier project like a hat, and then transferring the skills to socks from there.
If you do decide to give it a go though we're always up for a bit of enabling over on [email protected] (it is currently the much-anticipated "sock month", hence the timing of my post!). Join usssssss 😉