I knit a sock and it healed my inner girlboss

How a heel flap and gusset brought the long gone twinkle back into my eyes

First of all, hello hi and welcome to my SUBSTACK. After realizing how much I enjoy writing my newsletter and how much tasteful ppl enjoy reading it, I’ve decided to lean in and give u all regularly doled out doses of James N Watts prose. Here are a few things you may expect in this space: updates on what I’m working on: craft and otherwise, what I’m reading, watching, eating, wearing, what bodies of water I’m swimming in, what bodies of water I wish I were swimming in, listicles, testicles, and overall greater insight to what’s going on both in my life and in my head *shivers*

Let’s keep today simple and give you the run down on what I am working on atm. First of all surely you must know that I am an esteemed knitting tastemaker (I sell knitting patterns with thoughtful names like “amazing sweater” *writes that down as an actual idea*) I’ve been doing yarn crafts for a long long time and I’ve been doing them in a girlbossing manner since 2019 and I love it so so much but also sometimes I feel just a little bit like I’ve been handcuffed to a pair of knitting needles and a sheep has a gun pointed at me and is baa'-ing at me to keep knitting or die. Incredibly, I have been released from my shackles by realizing that I wholeheartedly love knitting again and the spookiest thing about it is that it happened while I was knitting a pair of socks (the most boring invigorating thing to knit)

I put out a sock pattern in December that was based on a pair of socks I had knit a year prior. When I was getting ready to release the pattern I begrudgingly forced myself to knit one sock just to double check everything was good, and then it was while knitting the second sock (out of pure spite-fueled obligation to finish the pair) that it dawned on me that I was enjoying myself and I got it done in a jiffy. Here are those socks which I finished last weekend:

The yarn is Regia 4-Ply that I bought in the basement of a gigantic Müller department store in Zagreb, Croatia, but I’m pretty sure I found the same one available online here. I was so enchanted by my new socks that I went directly from the cafe where I finished knitting them to an extremely cute little yarn store (The Fiber Universe in Peoria, IL (I was in Peoria to play violin with the local symphony)) and bought more artisanal hand dyed sock yarn to knit more socks. I am trying to save money at the moment and it wasn’t lost on me that spending $32 so that I could then spend 15-20 hours hand knitting something that gets stuffed into shoes and walked all over while remaining mostly out of sight is INSANE. After spending $69 (literally) to get enough luxury hand dyed yarn to knit 2 pairs of socks I left the yarn shop happy as a lil clam and cast on my next sock IMMEDIATELY

The yarns I bought were All The Colors Luxe Sock in the color Dragon Fruit and Knitted Wit Sock in the color Grand Portage. The pattern I’ve been using is my own. It’s all I want to use at the moment sorry to all other sock patterns. It’s called “Ribrib Socks” and its got 2x2 ribbing throughout the entire sock. Sexy, snug, and selegant.

The world of knitting is absolutely so slow and especially the world of knitting designing grading writing testing and publishing knitting patterns has to be done so far in advance, so I’m already knitting up summer designs. It is February 25th and unseasonably warm in Chicago with a high of 50 degrees, and tell me why when I saw the weather I immediately felt pressured like, “if I don’t get a new mesh pattern into testing before the snow all melts in the next 45 minutes I’ll have to push this design to Summer 2026.” Thankfully I love to knit now so I’m sure I’ll definitely finish this design in 2 seconds. Take a peek at Look At My Holes Boxy (working title idfk):

I’m using the same yarn I used for the original Look At My Holes in 2021, Kelbourne Woolens Mojave, which I forgot how much I loved using the first time. They’ve got great colors, a nice blend of cotton and linen, it isn’t overpriced, and it’s got a lovely hand to delight the knitter and wearer. That will be $5 please Kelbourne, cough it up! (not sponsored unfortunately) Also, I have to mention, do you see how pretty my knitting needles are? Don’t they look fancy? That’s because they are, bitches! They are the Lykke Cypra interchangeable needles, they are made out of copper and they are not cheap. They are totally fine to knit with, but amazing to behold. That will be $5 please Lykke, cough it up!

Sidenote, I’m writing this in a cafe (ooh la la) bc I’ve realized I need to get out of my lair more often and an adjacent patron has accidentally had music go off on his phone louder than you would even think possible not once but TWICE. The noise didn’t bother me much and my displeasure at hearing it is greatly outweighed by the joy I get from witnessing someone scramble and get embarrassed. I was amused the first time, but had to look out the window to keep my composure when it happened AGAIN 5 minutes later and the dude was nodding his head in shame and disbelief that his technology had betrayed him again. I’m not being a bitch I swear it’s just funny in such a relatable way that I enjoy. Anyway.

I am currently trying to split my time between 8 million crafts, projects and hobbies and I cannot talk about them all in one post but I need you to know that I am simultaneously tablet weaving, practicing reading and writing in Chinese (Mandarin, simplified), listening to book 3 of the Mistborn trilogy, going to the gym three times per week (down from 6 times per week so I have more time for my favorite new hobby called knitting), reading The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, playing Balatro on my Nintendo Switch (it is FUN and you can buy it on your phone so go ahead and download that today), learning a Mozart sonata on my newly acquired upright piano, and am so so close to being totally caught up on Real Housewives of Atlanta before the new season starts in a couple weeks. Thanks for reading and catch you later.