I am having a love/hate relationship with my socks. I love knitting them. They are so easy to grab and stick in a purse for those unoccupied moments. I love watching the striped patterns develop and I love not having to work from a pattern. So why the "hate?" I am making a sincere resolution to knit from my stash and socks just don't deplete the stash fast enough. I can work on a pair for weeks and when I am finished, I have only made the tiniest dent in my yarn bins.
Still, I have 3 pair on the needles and I will keep at them until they are all done. Even if they don't take off much from the stash pile, they are counted on my "Christmas Gift" tally, so I see the progress on my little counters on this blog and see my Christmas bin fill up.
It is so easy for me to get the cart before the horse. I knit because it calms and refreshes me. The creative process is soothing and when I am finished, I have a feeling that I have somehow given back to the universe. How can a pair of socks give to the universe...isn't that a little pretentious? Not really, at least not to me. Doing something creative feels like giving something back...being a part of creating instead of destroying. We are plunked down on this earth as babies and immediately we start the using process. As babies we take take take...food, clothing, heat, love. We slurp it right up and give little back except what is destined for the landfill. At first, we aren't even very good at giving love, although we are adept at getting it. Scientists are always talking about our footprint and I feel like the creative work we do should help to balance what we take.
So, even though the socks don't use up much stash, they fill my need to create and, hopefully, the recipient of the socks will feel some of the creative energy and love that went in to making them. Socks are very satisfying and that is what knitting is all about anyway.
