Knitting - it's an addiction

I've been knitting most of my life, but had put it aside for about 15 years. My daughter recently learned to knit and so I dug out all the old stuff - vintage (at least now they are, since they are from my childhood) knitting needles, old stashes of yarn, and patterns - mostly baby stuff.  Long story short, Meghan's new hobby inspired me to start knitting again. I made dish cloths, wash cloths, slippers and winter hats over the past couple of months, but then decided to learn how to knit socks. The local yarn store offered a class on Thursday nights for the past three weeks, and I was able to finish my first pair last night.

Ta-dah! - Self-striping yarn, which just happened to match perfectly on both socks. I bought 200g of this yarn, thinking I would get a pair of regular size socks and have enough left over for some sport socks. However, I weighed the left overs today and I have more than enough for another full-sized pair, so I will work another pair in this pattern soon.

This isn't as expensive an endeavor as wood turning or carving, but yarn prices have certainly gone up since I last purchased it. I guess that really relates to the quality of the yarn. These socks are superwash wool (a blend of wool and nylon). I could spend a fortune on nice yarn.....

The advantage of hand-knit socks is that I can make them to fit my misshapen feet. I have horrible bunions, which means that socks usually bunch up in the wrong spots and cause blisters on long hikes. I'll be working on some sturdy hiking socks this year...