one sock at a time... sort of

Brown Berry is having a group discussion on her blog about skerry knits. Several people have mentioned knitting two socks at a time.

Well, I'm here to say, I've tried it and it's not for me. But I'm not skeered of it.

I'm not a two circs sock knitter. I would say that my natural style is dpns, but I'm quickly becoming a magic loop convert. They are just so much easier to jam in the ziplock and there's very little danger of escaped stitches.

I can try-on socks on dpns by knitting in a few extra sticks but trying on socks on ML is even easier. When you're at the end of a row of knitting, pull the socks onto the loops, and try it on any old time.

I have tried knitting two socks at a time and it's perfectly workable ML style. However, it requires that I unloop the yarn from skein 1 (for sock 1) from my left hand, find the yarn for sock 2 and wrap my left hand. knit some-unwrap-rewrap-knit some-unwrap-rewrap and so on. I'm a confirmed continental knitter and must have the yarn well wrapped. All this unwrapping and rewrapping slows me down. And there is a risk that I forget the unwrapping/rewrapping and then sock 2 gets knitted with sock 1's yarn and you can guess where this is going. Tink-city.

About the "sort of" qualifier. My preferred method of knitting is bring two socks along together. What I mean is that I'm likely to knit the toe and foot of sock 1, then knit the toe and foot of sock 2. Then knit a heel on each sock, separately but in a close time proximity. Then the sock top of sock 1, another sock top for sock 2...

This paired knitting requires two identical needles available at the same time, and just now one of my fav size 1.5 (2.5mm) kp circ is missing in action. I am sure it is some project (likely socks, ya' think?) somewhere.

So I ordered another one. With some books at the big 40% off book sale at knitpicks.