Don’t get me wrong, I love these socks and intend to wear them frequently once it gets cool again, but I really felt like they were cursed as I made them.

Usually I can make a pair of socks in about two weeks. This takes into account working and the limited hours to actually knit during the week, and long knitting sessions on the weekends to make up for it. I really enjoy knitting socks and seeing them come together, but man is it frustrating when things go wrong.

I started these socks in January. At the start things looked good.

When I got to the heel, usually my favorite part to knit, I tried a short row heel. Oh, it didn’t work. I followed the pattern, and watched a video or two on how to knit short rows, but it wasn’t coming together for me. So I ripped the heel out and started over, this time with my regular heel flap method. Then I realized as I started the gusset that I forgot to turn my heel – you know, make the little cradle for your heel. Rip out the heel again, only this time, I can’t get the stitches back on my needle right. Deep breath and rip the whole thing out.

So I started over. I loved the pattern, loved the yarn and loved how the socks were looking, so I just went for it. I don’t know what happened, but I ended up starting over 6 times. There were issues with the cuff, issues with the number of stitches, issues with dropping stitches and issues with loosing my place in the pattern. But I persisted and I ended up – finally – with a complete sock . . . that was too small. I inadvertently went down both a size for the sock and a needle size. I had intended to do one or the other and somehow did both, so now I had a completed sock that I could not get on my foot.

This is when I took a break. I just couldn’t do it again right away, so I went for the slipper socks as a nice diversion and to get my knitting mojo back. It worked and when I started again, I was in a much better place. I did end up starting over twice more, but in the end, they came out great and fit really well. They are put away for the time being (it is already 90 here). The lesson I’m taking from these is persistence pays off . . . and know when to step back for a little while to get perspective.