Reading · While I was knitting

A while ago I received many suggestions and so much advice about knitting two socks at a time (TAAT), including some book recommendations. It seemed like the obvious next step in my sock knitting journey.

At the time I was knitting my Latha Cardigan and didn’t have any sock project on the needles. Rather than wait until I could start a new pair of socks, I decided to try TAAT on the sleeves of the cardigan instead. I was delighted. Nothing turned into the tangled mess I had feared, and I was elated to find both my sleeves ended up exactly the same size.

I wondered why I had waited so long to try something that everyone described as so efficient.I couldn’t wait to finish my cardigan and try a TAAT sock project. For extra fun, I decided to make them toe-up as well. Top-down has always been my default, and it felt like the perfect time to learn the toe-up method as well.

I knit two separate toes and then joined them onto one longer needle to begin knitting them two at a time. I couldn’t wait to see these socks fly off the needles and never have to deal with second sock syndrome again.

Except...

Months later, yes, months, they are still lying there, ignored while other projects have taken priority. I couldn’t quite understand why. TAAT was supposed to solve a problem, yet somehow it had created a different one.

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The other day at my LYS, two knitters were talking about how many WIPs are normal across all the crafts we do. They were discussing different categories of WIPs and other nuances and all the while I was watching their hands fly through another sock.

Then the conversation inevitably turned to sock WIPs.

One of them said she had recently visited a museum and had taken her sock project with her. She said it felt like. “making art while looking at art.”

I told them about my own habit of knitting while walking and how it often starts conversations with complete strangers. I also blurted out that recently I was stopped by someone on one of my usual walks to ask about why I wasn’t knitting while walking anymore!

Why indeed? Now the group was listening to me telling them about how I had switched to the TAAT method and how it wasn’t a comfortable walking project anymore.

She laughed and said “They are joined at the hip!”

Then she smiled and patiently explained, “Sock knitting is special. It is full of little milestones. Every cuff, every heel, every finished foot, every completed sock is its own little celebration. You’re missing half of those moments.”
Then it hit me. “And when I knit one at a time, I get twice the amount of everything,” I said.

Is knitting two socks at a time more productive than knitting one at a time?

Theoretically, yes.

And although it would give me a perfectly finished pair of socks if I stick with it, the process doesn’t give me the joy I have come to expect from my sock knitting.

It’s not that I’m cross with TAAT. I’m genuinely sad to say goodbye to a technique that is undeniably efficient. I still think it’s a wonderful method. I’d happily teach it or help anyone who wants to learn it. I may even continue using it for sweater sleeves. It just isn’t how I want to knit my socks.

In knitting, always look for joy. Productivity is often a welcome byproduct, but it rarely works the other way around. Knitting keeps teaching me this lesson over and over again, if only I remember to listen.

Have you ever abandoned a technique that everyone else seems to love? Comment below and let me know.♥️

One at a time or two?

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