This year, I decided to expand my capabilities and embark on little monthly challenges. Some of them are financed-based, some are fitness-based and some are just for fun. I really have no rhyme or reason for the challenges, I just wanted something to focus on for each month.
The challenge:
For July, the challenge was to knit a pair of socks.
The parameters:
I wanted to see if I could knit a pair of socks in one month. I had a beautiful yellow variegated yarn that I bought from a yarn shop in New Jersey, which has been calling my name, wanting to be knit into a pair of socks. I searched on Ravelry for a pattern, and I found the Scatterby Socks by Amy Stringer. These socks are knit from the toe up, a technique I have never used before but have been wanting to try. For some reason, I feel that I will get a better fit if I knit from the toe up.
I pulled out my yarn, my circular needles, and a couple of stitch markers and cast on.
How did I do?
Not good. I’ll be honest, I kind of failed this challenge. To be clear, although I’ve knit several pairs of socks before, I’ve never timed myself to know how long they take to make, and I’ve never tried to make a whole pair in one month. Socks are usually something that I have on my needles to work on when I need a small project or something mindless. These socks are taking a lot longer than I thought they would.
I only knit the length of a foot and made it to the heel on one sock. Granted, I do not knit every day, and there was a whole weekend where I didn’t knit at all because I had family in town and was hanging out with them. But I tried to knit for at least half an hour every evening.
The pattern is fairly simple and is a four-row repeat that is pretty easy to memorize once I got the hang of it. I still had to look to make sure I was on the right row sometimes, but I could totally watch television and knit at the same time. I’m not sure that I love the toe on this sock. It’s the first time I’m knitting toe-up socks, and the toe is looking a little too angular for me. I think, if I made these again, I might knit the toe differently so that it is more round and not so v-shaped.
Lessons learned:
I suppose I learned that it takes me longer than a month to knit a pair of socks. In fact, it takes me longer than a month to knit one sock. I don’t know how some of these knitters are able to make a pair of socks so quickly. They must have a lot of time to knit and are fast knitters. I am a slow knitter, so it does take me a long time; another thing I have to remember and not to judge my progress against others. I also have a lot of other hobbies, so it’s not like I only knit. I also crochet, read, do puzzles, watch YouTube, and write on this blog.
I’m going to keep knitting along, and hopefully I can finish these socks up in time to get working on Christmas presents!
I’ll be back next month with a new challenge.
2025 Monthly challenges:
January: Food budgeting
February: Sit-ups
March: Decluttering
April: Puzzles
May: Cozy Journaling
June: Granny Squares
July: Sock knitting
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