Here’s the thing: when you have a bunch of WIPs and you spread your knitting time around all of them (or at least some of them), then it takes a while for things to get finished. These socks, for example. I cast on in JANUARY and I just finished them, six months later. And they’re not even what they were supposed to be to begin with!

Originally, I had plans to knit these really cool Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) socks (pattern on Rav). It had the WW logo on the leg, but not only was the stitch pattern just charted and not written out (I don’t love charts – I usually find them harder/slower to read) but there was some weird fancy twisted stitch that looked super complicated and I just decided this pattern was more work than I wanted to do for a pair of socks. I like happy simple sock knitting. Of course, finishing these socks still took a few months after deciding that, but they’re done now and that’s the important thing.

It’s been busy and stressful and hot around here. The plants are appreciating the sunshine and the heat; the dogs, not so much, since it means they usually don’t get walks. I’ve made good progress on my Back to the Fuchsia shawl but have no illusions that I’ll finish it any time soon – that mosaic pattern has a tendency to get real tedious, so I have to take breaks.

This weekend is a busy one, by my standards anyway. Tomorrow I’m going to see Katherine Center with a friend (have you read her books?? I love them, especially The Bodyguard), and I think we’ll have dinner after, and Sunday I have a family birthday party. Both delightful things but I do hope I get plenty of quiet knitting time too!

Happy Friday, friends.

Bah. Last week I showed you my two new sock projects and told you how I was excited to get back to them, remember that? Well, after finishing my Turtle Dove, I pulled them out, excited to get back to socks. The Pawprints sock was first. I’d apparently done one repeat of the 16-row lace pattern, so I started another one … and quickly remembered why it was in hibernation. The lace pattern changed each RS row, and each time I had to readjust the stitches on my DPNs to account for a k2tog or ssk or yo falling at the end of a needle. There was no combination of stitches I could consistently keep on each needle as I worked through the 16 rows. It drove me absolutely BONKERS. By row eight I was muttering under my breath, by row 16 I knew I’d never complete this pattern as written. For me, sock knitting needs to not be fidgety or fussy or annoying — and adjusting my stitches constantly is definitely annoying for me. And no, I don’t want to switch to a 9″ circ or two circs or magic loop. I love knitting socks on DPNs, that is my jam. This pattern is not my jam, and that’s okay. The yarn, however, LOOKS like jam and I love it, so I’m going to frog that lace, drop down from 70 stitches to 68, and reknit a perfectly boring ribbed sock.

Oh but I still have that Wonder Woman sock, you’re thinking? Yeah, about that … I got ready for the design, which I knew was charted. I flipped it so the chart was horizontal and I could read it correctly, and realized that the stitch key was oriented the opposite direction. There was no way to have both the chart and the key oriented the same way so I could easily reference then both while knitting. Not only that, the chart referenced some lateral braid stitch, which wasn’t described in the key but on another page, and I’ll be darned if the whole damn thing didn’t just sound like a big pain in the ass, which is, again, not what I like for my sock knitting. I will still be knitting Wonder Woman socks but they will not have any fancy logo on them. The colors alone will have to show that they are Wonder Woman socks.

This experience has only served to reinforce what I suspected: my sock knitting has to be very simple. Lace and cables and fancy stitches all their place in my knitting, but that place is clearly not socks. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go frog a purple sock.

Happy Monday, friends.