Please Don't Make Me Do It Again

Imagine that you've just finished a creative project that took eight plus hours and now you're ready to move on to your next creative project. But you can't because you have to go back and do an exact replica of the project you just completed.

That's the feeling I get when I finish knitting one sock and it's time to start the second sock. This feeling is so common with sock knitters that they have a name for it: SSS - Second Sock Syndrome.

Starting that second sock after the first one is complete is a bore. The challenge of the pattern has been met and conquered. Now it's time to get on to the next challenge, to see how some other yarn and stitch pattern look together, to do anything but knit an identical sock.

I avoid SSS by knitting both socks at the same time. I start one sock, knit a few inches, and then start the second sock. I grab the shortest sock each time I sit down to knit. By the time one of the socks is done, the other is almost done and I have a pair.

Some sock knitters have complicated methods of knitting both socks on the same set of needles at the same time. I do it the simplest way possible - on two separate sets of needles with two balls of yarn. Each sock in process is an independent unit.