Adaptability

When the horror of the tangle pushed me into starting the knee highs I felt I was diving in on something that needed a little more planning.  My auntie requested some knee high socks for her Christmas gift socks back in the spring, so the idea  has been percolating in my mind for a long while but I was holding off until I had some time to work out the details. Then the socks need for planning became less than my need for some calming sock knitting so I thought I'd just get going and adapt as I went along. I wasn't sure of sizing, calf-shaping, heel type, anything in fact bar the yarn and that I wanted to rib the leg so it would have the best chance of fitting - but I knew all the rest could be figured out along the way and it has been.

I've been enjoying the lovely Kaffe Fassett colourway. I had some fun playing with the way it echoes the strength of the colours in my anemones.

Thanks to Dr K for reminding me that this is the self same yarn Bells used for her knee highs.  The memory of those must have been a subliminal inspiration as I was sure for a long time in advance of the knitting that this was the right stash yarn for this project. Now Bells was a smarty pants on two fronts - she had more than two balls of the yarn and did her socks from the toe up. I wanted to use up what I had and thought with some 2.75mm needles I'd get a pair of knee highs out of it. I would have gone with toe ups but I just didn't have the patience to watch a tutorial and I don't have any toe up cast-ons in my head so I had to dive in top down and hope that there would be enough yarn. 

Not so much. 

But I love it anyway. I striped in some leftover Kaffe Fasset Regia I had from a pair of socks I made for last Christmas which had the right tones if not the right stretches of colour. I wanted to keep up the momentum and not wait and try and get hold of more yarn. I wanted to use what resources I had both in terms of yarn and mentally. These socks have become all about being adaptable, a prime example of as in knitting as in life. I'm trying hard not to over plan, to delay things until everything is perfect. In trying to overcome the ME I've seen that this in area I need to relax and learn to trust more in my own skills and capabilities. So as ever there's a lot more in this sock than just yarn. I'm so glad I just got going and even more so that I kept going and enjoyed every relaxing stitch. A little triumph which I love for its imperfection. 

Now on to number two!