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I do four things while I'm knitting a pair of socks.

The first and most obvious is that I knit the stitches that create the socks. I love everything about this part from the shaping of the toe, to knitting the foot, creating a gusset, turning the heel, making a heel flap, knitting up the leg and finally creating a band up the top and casting off.

I listened to a podcast today where Jerome Sevilla of Grid Junky spoke of his love for knitting with very fine wool. He spoke of how the fact that it takes so much longer and so much more commitment to create something from such fine wool makes it more meaningful and more special and I totally get that.

The second thing I do is think a lot about the person I am making the socks for. I think about them wearing them and I also think about them and my relationship with them. I think the fact that socks take so long to knit makes them such a meaningful present and I love that I have that gift to give.

The third thing I do is carry them everywhere I go so I can sneak in a row whenever I can. This means my socks travel and become part of my life and my conversations and my memories. I cast on the green socks above at a birthday pool party. I knitted them throughout all the end of school festivities, they calmed and soothed me when we lost a friend far too young, I knitted them in the paddock while we had coffee breaks and at nights after the girls were in bed. I finally cast off those socks at another kid's birthday party which made me feel like I'd knitted all the circles and come full circle.

And the fourth thing I do while I'm knitting a pair of socks is think about how I'll photograph them finished. Years ago in my early times of blogging I used to read a knitter's blog even though I didn't knit. I loved and related to her posts about her family and her farming and her other crafts, but as I wasn't yet a knitter myself I used to skip over her knitting posts. It occurred to me some time later, that each time she cast off a project she'd drape it against her garden wall and photograph it. Every single time the same shot. When I finally did become a knitter I decided that I wanted to take photos of my knits that would be interesting and pleasing to non knitters and knitters alike. Sock knitting seems to have the added challenge of taking interesting, pleasing photos of something otherwise very mundane.

So as I knit each pair I imagine them against white walls, tucked up in white bed sheets, climbing up trees, sticking out of work boots, upside down and in all sorts of interesting and odd poses. I'm very lucky that so far I've had obliging models with pretty strong stomach muscles.

The details for the Diagonal Lace socks are here.

Do you do any or all of those things while you are creating too?
Or do you have other loves and means and ways?

I hope you found a little time to do something for yourself today.

Biggest love

xxxx