options socks

When I was in middle school, I met a girl named Kristen. Kristen never, ever wore matching socks. Ever. She probably still doesn't. In fact, I really hope she still doesn't, because I always thought it was fabulous. Who cares if your socks match? Why wear two that are the same, if you don't want to? Besides, if your socks don't match, you don't have to fold them. You can just throw them all in your drawer and pull two out at random every day! Fabulous! I have occasionally thought about doing this, but I absolutely could not stand it if the socks felt different on my feet.

Later, I discovered knitting blogs, and people knitting socks, and people who go to great lengths to make their hand knit socks match. Please, if you are one of those people, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's ok. I like my silverware to match*, so I kind of understand. I've knit matching socks. But I was thinking about the lovely wall of Koigu at the yarn shop, and how you have to buy two skeins of Koigu to make a pair of matching socks. But, all the Koigu would probably feel the same, no? So what's stopping me from buying two, or four, or maybe just three different skeins and knitting them all into socks using the same pattern? Mix and match socks! It'd be spectacular. Kristen would be proud.




*If you are thinking "but obviously when you buy a set of silverware, all the pieces match..." then I must tell you about my parents' silverware, which is comprised of not one, but three different sets of silverware. As a child, if I was setting the table for dinner, I would always make sure the silverware at each place setting matched. And sometimes, if I was irritated at someone, I'd give them mismatching silverware, although I doubt they even noticed, much less felt the burning sting of my reproach.