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Some Great Reasons to Knit Socks — What Are Yours?

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Need a reason to knit socks? Here are a bunch.I’m a little obsessed with knit socks right now. It’s winter, and they are the best thing ever for keeping your feet cozy.

But I also just want to knit a bunch of socks. I have a pair on the needles for my daughter, but I don’t really have a lot of time for knitting a big pair right now. And that makes me sad.

If you’re not a sock knitter you might not know all the great reasons to knit socks. But Ashley at Craftsy does, and she just might talk you into trying it, especially if your foot is somewhere out of the range of normal.

One thing she mentions that I hadn’t really thought about is, despite all the talk about repairing holes in socks, handmade socks do seem to last longer than the ones you buy in the store. Maybe it’s just because we take better care of them, but I’ve yet to have a hole develop in a pair of handmade socks (though some are certainly starting to show wear) and I’ve throw away tons of socks because they’ve worn out.

If you knit socks, anything you’d add to this list? And if you don’t, are you inspired? Maybe I should do a sock knitting month in February?

[Photo via Craftsy.]

Looking for more knitted socks designs and patterns to keep you warm this winter? Check out these knitted sock patterns Etsy. And these Knitting Pattern books on Amazon.

Looking to buy your Yarn online? Check out these online yarn specials.

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Knit a Log Cabin Blanket with All Your Scraps

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn. 

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small. 

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches. 

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come. 

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you. 

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?). 

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry. 

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns. 

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]