Behold the socks that created my obsession! These were actually the third pair I knitted but the first ones that made me understand why knitted socks are so great.
The pattern is the classic Hermione's Everyday Socks, and the yarn is a special blend of all kinds of things including silk and bamboo, bought as a souvenir from a shop called Yarnia in Portland during a big US road trip we took in 2015. You can sort of see the different strands in it in this pic here.
These are my lucky socks. I wore them to job interviews, I wore them the day I got accepted into uni, and I wore them for confidence whenever I was doing something scary.
Alas, after years of heavy use, one of them has a hole in the ball of the foot and I expect the other one won't be far behind.
So given that for once I've managed not to overburden myself with Christmas crafting this year, I think my project for the holidays is going to be to learn how to fix these. At least they'll be usable for wearing around the house, and given they're 8 years old that's pretty good going really!
(Please excuse the wildly different colours from one image to the next, this was a long time ago and I did not know how to camera)
How bad do your hands hurt after knitting a pair? Are you lucky enough it doesn't bother you? Would take me a until next Christmas to knit one pair of socks!!
Thanks! Honestly, I don't have those kinds of issues with my hands (yet), had some wrist trouble when I was younger but I find that switching between different projects and even different crafts is enough variation in movement that nothing hurts. Trying to knit for too long a stretch would obviously not go well, but I have plenty other things to be making!
Sometimes I'll knit a pair and it really does take an entire year because I'll just pick them up occasionally and do a round or two. Other times I can blast through a pair in a couple weeks. Depends how I'm feeling really :D
That sounds more likely to be the cotton, tbh. Bamboo yarn is generally very soft and kind of slippery, but some cottons can feel quite rough (even though it's not itchy like a lot of wool). Of course, you could just have really weird bamboo :D