Like many knitters out there, I love knitting socks. The kind of love where you’re totally obsessed with it and you can’t think about anything else and you dream of ways to invent new and amazing socks while you’re at work.
I also suffer from Too Many Projects on the Needles syndrome, also known as Starteritis.
These two things combined can easily result in working 8 different socks at the same time, and taking 3 months to finish one sock because I’m so busy multitasking I can’t just sit down and pick one. I have, however, by some lucky change of fate, discovered a system that works for me.
What’s my secret, you ask? How do I prevent myself from knitting 10 different pairs of socks at a time, you wonder? The answer, my friends, is simple: I only have one circular needle each in the 2.5 and 2.0mm sizes. I only knit in magic loop - I refuse to use DPNs, even though I have them in almost all of the sock sizes - and I can’t really justify having two 2.5mm 32″ or longer circular needles. I can warrant the purchase of 25 different sock yarns because they are different colors, fiber contents, etc, but I can’t warrant the purchase of the same needle two times over, especially when I prefer Addi Turbos ($$$).
I guess it all comes down to that fact that I’d rather take that $15-20 I was going to spend on needles that I already have and spend it on yarn.
This little method has helped curb some symptoms of Starteritis for me, but I realize it is not the cure for everyone. When I buy more circular needles in my missing sock sizes (2.25mm is actually all I really need), I could, in theory, have as many as 3 pairs of socks on the needles at a time.
But I doubt that will happen. I’ve become so adjusted to finishing a pair of socks in less than two weeks (sometimes under a week!) that the idea of working on 3 pairs simultaneously amuses me. Sure, I still have a cardigan on the needles, as well as a few random odds and ends, but I only have one pair of socks, and since socks are my bus knitting, I churn them out pretty quickly.
Holy crap, I think I’m turning into a monogamous knitter.