Category: knitting

As of today, I’ve made 6 pairs of socks this year! (And it may end up being 7; I just have toes and heels on one more.) I wanted to really get into sock knitting in 2021, but I kept getting tendonitis flare-ups. I finally did something about it in August of this year and started getting medical massages. Not only did I knit half the year’s socks in the time since then, I’m back to trying to do a real pull up at the gym–highly recommend this practitioner if you’re local.

Other numbers-based milestones for the year? I finally hit 100 pounds on bench press in November (also thanks to the medical massage); Doc had 3 hospital stays and 1 surgery (and is doing great); and Toby turned 16 (and is also doing great after his vet brought in a pet nutritionist and we got him different food).

I guess the lesson I’m taking from 2023 is… pay for a specialist to fix your problems! Easy! Seriously, though, I’m grateful we could afford our specialists and that their expertise helped us all feel better.

Happy New Year, friends. Stay warm and knit on.

I got the pair of short socks off the needles (they still need a pompom, though) and only have the heels to do on the last two pairs from this year. So that meant getting started on MOAR SOCKS! Especially since the mornings and evenings are cool enough now to need them.

The darker yarn is part of a Webs order from earlier this year (Lang Super Soxx Cities “Bern”) but the lighter pair I picked up from Harmony on a summer trip. (It’s Cascade Heritage Prints, “Southwest”).

(Where is all the sewing content? I’ve been struggling with that pack. I got it sewn up ok but the way it holds the weight is all wrong, and I honestly don’t think I want to put more time into it. It’s definitely sucked up all my sewjo, though. So knitting and bookbinding it is for now.)

I still have five pairs of socks in various stages of completion but last week I also started a “shorty” pair, based on this Instagram challenge:

The challenge was to pick a variegated yarn from your stash and knit the designer’s pattern, and I had a neon rainbow skein from 2021 (far right in the pic) AND already owned the pattern. I thought knitting a short pair in two weeks would be easy, except I just haven’t had a lot of work meetings to knit in the last couple weeks.

But they’ll get finished eventually, even if it won’t be by Friday. And look at that rainbow pastel variegated action! These might need a pink pompom on the heel, too–stay tuned.

 

The NY Times just published a report on people who knit during meetings, starting with the question, “Is it rude to knit at work?”

They present both sides: “Knitters say it isn’t the same as sneaking a phone under the camera or scrolling the internet. Knitting, they say, sharpens their attention, allowing them to focus more than they would with idle hands.”

They bring in expert opinions!

The fine-motor movement required for knitting, crocheting, doodling or using a fidget spinner activates the same parts of the brain used for focus, said John Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. So, these activities really do help to sharpen awareness. But other activities that require too much concentration, like reading a social media feed or playing a game on a smartphone, can push a person out of productivity and into unfocused multitasking.

“Being involved with something will make a person with flagging attention be more attentive,” Dr. Ratey said. “You will turn on the prefrontal cortex if you’re doing something like knitting.”

We reach no definitive conclusion, but knitting during Zoom calls is probably ok, depending on your workplace. Whew!

 

 

I’ve been knitting socks during all the meetings at the new job (instead of biting my fingernails completely off) and it’s been productive:

I’ve discovered that if I have more than one sock going on at any given point, then I’ll have the right kind of knitting for whatever meeting it is: mindless rounds for small groups where I have to be involved, or the more complicated casting on or heels/toes for bigger ones where I can mostly listen.

Even better, the tiny sock needles aren’t triggering my tendonitis. (I’ve also given up trying to do a pull-up at the gym and remember to stretch.)

After a few months of modifications and no knitting, my tennis elbow doesn’t bother me at all at the gym now. I always assumed the gym was the culprit and not the knitting, but I picked up February’s abandoned sock two nights ago and only got two rows done before I could feel that I’d regret it if I kept going.

So…I guess I don’t knit now? It’s one thing to not have anywhere to wear the clothes I sew, but it’s a million times more frustrating to not be able to physically do the other hobby I enjoy. Do I wear a brace? Do I learn how to knit Continental? (It’s my right elbow; I think the yarn “throwing” is what’s doing it.) Any knitters out there have tips?

I’m losing some steam on the Year of Socks and only got 95% of one finished in February:

I switched to Addi FlexiFlip needles for this one and really like them, even though they’re not making me noticeably faster.  (My slow progress could also be because I was too fried to do much of anything after work last week.)

We’ll see if I can get the other sock done this month and then move on to lighter weight socks for the rest of the year.