A Sock Knitter’s Reflections: From My First Pair to My 100th Pair!

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I’ve reached a milestone in my knitting journey: my 100th pair of socks! Can you believe it? I’ve been tripping down memory lane reading some old blog posts from my very first pair of socks and it’s cool to see how far I’ve come.

As it turns out, my first pair and my 100th pair are both made from a heathered dusty blue yarn, setting us up for a perfect “then and now” comparison post! Here we go…

Then: The First Pair of Socks

The year was 2007, and knitting was my favorite distraction from studying. I used to post on my blog much more frequently back then because no one on MySpace wanted to hear about my knitting. I wanted to knit socks but I was really intimidated at the prospect of knitting with thin yarn and tiny needles so I chose to knit my first pair with worsted weight yarn and U.S. size 3 needles, which was still the smallest diameter I’d ever worked with, but felt a little less scary than traditional sock needle sizes.

I used Wool-Ease yarn, and, looking back, I’m so impressed with myself that I specifically chose the wool/acrylic blend so they would be machine washable! (I still insist on a nylon blend and superwash wool when I choose sock yarn! Nobody has time to hand wash 100 pairs of socks…)

I bought Betsy Lee McCarthy’s infamous sock-shaped book, Knit Socks, and learned how to do all the techniques from her instructions. I still heartily recommend that book for anyone new to sock knitting! The Starter Stockinette pattern is written for absolute beginners, and the formatting is super easy to follow.

I know not everyone can learn knitting techniques from books, so I also recommend the online sock knitting classes on Craftsy if you are a visual learner. (I know there are a zillion free YouTube tutorials out there. I don’t like sifting through YouTube to try to skim the good tutorials from the awful ones, so I prefer to pay for Craftsy courses because I know they will be high quality. That said, if you’d found a great one, post in the comments!)

My first socks were super warm and lasted for a long time. I finally wore a hole in them years later and, by that time, I had become fully obsessed with knitting socks and I had a good pile of them in my wardobe. I had already experimented with darning holes in socks and it’s not my favorite thing to do. So I chose not to mend the holed and let them go peacefully…

Now: The 100th Pair of Socks

This pair of socks is a great representation of where I’ve landed with my sock-knitting style. I have tried out tons of construction techniques and I like mixing things up, but I always come back to a cuff-down sock with a heel-flap & gusset, knitted one-at-a-time on size 1.5 dpns.

For yarn, I always come back to solid colors. These are made with my go-to sock yarn, Knit Picks Stroll. I especially love the heathered colorways, like this one, Blue Steel Heather. Stroll is soft, durable, affordable, and comes in so many fun colors. You can’t go wrong with it.

I love to use patterns from indie designers. This pair of socks is designed by one of my favorite designers, verybusymonkey. It’s called Olea, and I loved it the moment I saw it. It’s a simple repeat and a nice short chart that fits on the screen of my iphone, which makes life easy. I was hoping I’d be able to memorize the repeat, but didn’t quite get there.

What’s Next?

I always have a few pairs of socks going on at once, so pair #101 is almost finished and #102 isn’t far behind! As I think about where I want to go in my sock-knitting journey, I think I want to get better at colorwork and master knitting on 9” circulars. Although I don’t really have any aspirations to be a pattern designer, I think it would be fun to try my hand at designing my own lace or cable motif socks. The most important goal of all, however, is using up my insanely large stash of sock yarn!! (Nah, that will never happen!!)

Thanks for following along on my little reflection! Do you knit socks? Have you hit a knitting milestone you’d like to share? Share your then and now in the comments! Here are my usual project notes…

yarn details

Knit Picks Stroll in Blue Steel Heather
Fingering Weight
75% Fine Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon
Machine wash gentle, tumble dry low or lay flat to dry
50 g/ 231 yd ball
Purchased in March 2023

project details

pattern: “Olea Socks” by verybusymonkey – available for download for $5.50 on Ravelry (tip: follow her on instagram – she often posts coupon codes!)
size knit: CO 64
needles: US size 1.5 (2.5 mm), wood dpns (my faves!)
yarn used: 338 yards (73 grams)
finished size: Top of cuff to bottom of heel flap: 10”, Back of heel flap to tip of toe: 9.25”
duration: October 2023 – March 2024