The Socks Have It

They all say that there is something addictive about knitting socks. Personally, I find that there is something addictive about knitting and crocheting and needles, about markers, hooks and yarns in general. As I reported below, I am far from an accomplished knitter. Or crocheter. But wherever I am at in this knitting journey, I owe it to one place that has been instrumental in my wish to get into knitting seriously, not just as a mere passer-by observing others having fun, but as a hands-on knitter. Fibre and Clay is the place responsible for this fever, one that has progressively escalated since the first time I had a look through its windows and had a peek at a world that was only a couple of hooks and needles away. It was July 2006. Even though I attended the knit gatherings on and off in that autumn, it was not until this year that I got knee-deep into knitting. I am now a Ravelrer, I have visited knit stores all the way to New York, and in fact I returned from it with an amazing stash.

Today saw my first formal knitting workshop and it was about knitting socks. Yes, they are fiddly, yes, you may be asking yourself why on earth knitting socks when you could be doing something else. I don’t ask myself that; usually, I ask myself why on earth am I filling in this spreadsheet with info that means nothing to me, instead of being at home knitting socks? But then maybe that’s just me, someone trapped in an alien world made up of batch runs, migration of data, interfaces, code drops and test environments, when my heart and my mind are consistently elsewhere. It was hard to concentrate this morning because the first air of spring wafted in through the open window after a looooong winter and because I pondered on how wonderful it would be to be doing this all the time, to have the luxury of getting up in the morning without the tyrannical schedule of a grey, soulless office inhabited by people who could not be more different from me if they tried, to go to this lovely place and knit in the company of women who are very interesting and very talented as well.

Helen run the workshop and I cannot wait to take more of her classes. I now do not feel so hopelessly finger-less when holding the tiny needles and once I’m finished here, I will go back to my lovely Regia hot pink yarn and start following a pattern. I will also try to knit in the round with circular needles and see whether that is any easier than holding three, four or even five double-pointed ones. Practice makes perfect... not that I expected perfect socks tonight but I do expect lots of practice.



The lovely Fibre and Clay.



Helen at the workshop.



My sock yarn.

For more about Helen and her work click here.