Im Also In The Likes Knitting But Is Terrified Of Socks Category, Do You Have Any Tips On Needle Gauge,

I’m also in the “likes knitting but is terrified of socks” category, do you have any tips on needle gauge, material, or patterns?

Yes!!

Knitting Socks 101

I like this Basic Sock pattern because this one works with both fingering/sock weight yarn, and has instructions for worsted weight as well.

What Yarn to Buy

So, if you have never knitted socks before, using a worsted weight is nice because they will knit up a lot faster.

If you don’t mind hand washing and laying flat to dry, Wool of the Andes is a nice, inexpensive wool, that knits up into a cozy pair of socks.

If you need to be able to wash and dry your socks in a machine, you’ll want superwash yarn. There’s a Wool of the Andes Superwash and a Swish Superwash. You will pay a little more for the superwash in the wool.

Another option is an acrylic yarn. There’s Brava which is really cheap, but not a terrible yarn. For your very first pair, this might be what I’d pick if you are really uncertain. But I will generally always prefer a wool.

And of course there is also a huge amount of fingering weight options available.

Knitting Needles

You can knit socks, two at a time, on a cable needle, but I personally prefer double pointed needles.

It’s personal preference whether you like metal, plastic, or wooden needles. I personally am in LOVE with bamboo needles.

Specifically the Caspian Needles from Knit Picks. But any DPNs you’re comfortable with will do!

For fingering/sock yarn you’ll want size 1 or 1 ½. And for worsted you’ll want size 3.

Second Sock Syndrome

What often happens, when a person makes one sock, is that doing the second sock of the pair can feel like a slog, lol. To combat this, it’s usually suggested to knit both at the same time.

I will generally do the cuff up to the heel flap on one, then on the next. Then the heel flap on one, and the next. Then turn, then the foot, then the toe - working first one sock, then its twin.

Stitches You Need to Know

People are always so intimidated by socks, but the trick is to take it one stitch at a time. Don’t try and wrap your brain around the entire process, just follow each step of the instructions.

To knit a sock using the pattern I linked you’ll need to know

knit in the round on DPNs (not as tough as it seems!)

how to long tail or cable cast on

knit and purl

knit two together (and purl two together)

slip slip knit

pick up a stitch

And that’s it. All very, very basic knitting stitches.

I hope that helps!

not EVERY bard has to be scanlan fucking shorthalt guys where’d the orpheus types go? where are the poets? the artists? where are the bards who sing so beautifully that their songs become magic and the world around them shifts to fit the tune? where are those born with music in their blood, who sing lullabies as children and find magic and wonder weaving between their tiny hands? just because they have high charisma doesn’t mean they have to be horny bastards. that’s not the point!!!!!! that’s not what being a bard is about!!!!!!! if it’s a side effect, fine, but that’s not! what! being! a! bard! is!

I grew up hearing the phrase “you never stick with anything, what’s the point” a lot. I’ve always been attracted towards seemingly disconnected interests, and gone through phases of being really into something. But eventually my interest would fade and I would move onto something else. 

Or at least that’s always how it’s been phrased for me, by others. Now I realize that my interest for the old thing didn’t fade so much as my interest for something new outshined it, and that’s vastly different. 

I was always made to feel bad about it, with every abandoned endeavour I was told I needed to stop starting things if I wasn’t going to stick with them. I was told I was wasting time and money picking up these random interests and abandoning them after a year. 

So eventually, I stopped picking things up. I told myself “what’s the point, I’m going to give up in a year anyway”. Even worse, I started dismissing every new interest, because I had no way of knowing if my interest was “real” enough or just another passing phase. I stopped trying new things, I stopped looking up stuff that piqued my curiosity, and having chronic depression made it really easy to leave everything on the dirty floor of neglected ideas. The more they piled up, the more depressing it was. All these things that could be nice, but I just can’t take care of them. 

I realize now how bullshit that kind of thinking is. So what if I stopped doing karate after a year? That’s one more year of karate than most people I know. And in that year I learned discipline, I learned to listen to a teacher, something I had never done before in all my years of private education. I learned the true meaning of respect, that it’s something you do out of faith at first and maintain as it’s reciprocated, not something you do blindly and regardless of how you’re treated. 

It gave me the foundation for the determination and grounding I needed to practice yoga. Another year. Not enough to be good at it maybe, but again a year more than most people I know and a year that is not lost, but gained. I learned balance, I learned to listen to my body, I learned how to let go of emotional tightness through physical stretching. 

And then iaido, only a few weeks because I couldn’t afford to keep going. The year of yoga I had done a couple years previous had given me a better starting point than the other newcomers to the class. I already had balance, I had strength in my legs and I had better posture. In those months I learned the importance of precision, the true definition of efficacy, the zen state that is incessant repetition. 

Did I practice long enough to get good at iaido, and yoga, and karate? No. Of course not. It takes years to become proficient and decades to master any of those things, but I learned other skills and those skills were an invaluable part of my growth both spiritually and emotionally. Likewise for my forays into painting, sewing, graphic design, film. I’m a photography student now heading into my second year of school, and every single second of practice I have in those other disciplines has given me more experience in those areas and made learning easier. 

Skills carry over. They intersect and connect in ways that are sometimes unexpected. Nothing is ever lost, experience is never a waste of time or worthless or stupid. Allow your focus to wander, reflect on what you learn, and consider how you can keep using it in other aspects of your life. Stop telling people their interests aren’t worth their time. 

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again but it is absolutely an example of civilizational inadequacy that only deaf people know ASL

“oh we shouldn’t teach children this language, it will only come in handy if they [checks notes] ever have to talk in a situation where it’s noisy or they need to be quiet”