You can never have too many socks

I seem to be suffering from a very rare form of learning disability which manifests itself in my complete and utter inability to learn how to do Kitchener stitch by heart. I can perform the mechanics of it just fine, but I cannot for the life of me remember how to do it without looking at the instructions. Very odd. It's not like it's a super complicated procedure, and yet I need to keep instructions (Knitty has excellent ones here) in front of me througout the whole procedure... or I will have forgotten how to do it by the time I get to the end of the toe of a sock. Ridiculous. Someone should send me to grafting camp.

This is fresh on my mind because of the following:

(Cat optional, but it's his birthday, so...)

One down, one to go. SSS, here I come. The second sock (or glove, or mitten, or sleeve, or – you get the picture) just isn't as much fun. What to do, what to do? I'm not a big fan of magic loop – I can do it just fine, it's just that I am twice as fast on DPNs, and, well, I'm impatient – so tempting as two socks on one circ sounds... I don't think it's for me.

When I knit my Jaywalkers last year, I did them both on separate pairs of DPNs at the same time – ten rounds on one, ten rounds on the other, turn one heel, turn the other... you get the picture. This worked very well for me and I ended up with two practically perfectly identical socks:


Since then I've replaced all my cheap metal needles and now use KnitPicks Harmony Wood (interchangeables and DPNs) nearly exclusively. Maybe I should invest in a second pair of 2.5mm DPNs? Not like it will break the bank...

... but on the other hand, I did the same thing with my Clessidras, and they ended up vastly different in gauge. So much, in fact, that I have yet to wear them even once. Ouch. Loads of work down the drain there. No idea how I managed it, either. Very strange.

I blame wrackspurts.