Happy new year to all the Needle Work Monday friends!
Today, I write about socks, which is one of my favorite items to knit in this season. After I moved to Germany, every year I knit some pairs of socks in autumn and winter.
As I exchanged comments between 
So this post may be for those who live in a country with cold winter. But if you have friends and family in a cold country, it's a great reason to knit one 😉
Let's get started!
1. Socks are practical
You can really use what you knit. Socks are a must for cold winters. I wonder why wool socks are not popular in Japan. It definitely could help me to keep my feet warm. I’m glad to know wool socks and learned how to knit them in Germany. If you are skeptical about the difference, just buy one pair of wool socks and try it before you start knitting.
2. Playful colors and designs for anti depression
Cold, rainy and gray autumn and winter days make us unhappy. Colorful sock yarn may relieve the unhappy feeling. There are yarns that have prints with multiple colors already. You just have to knit with it. Then a pattern appears. It’s like magic.
There are well known sock yarn brands such as Opal but I think most of the yarn brands have a sock yarn line. One of my favorite brands is a German brand called Schoppel. Schoppel has wool 100% yarn but for me it was too fragile to use for socks. After a season, the sole of my socks almost got some holes. I must try their stronger yarn that contains Nylon but biodegratable.
- Schoppel Wolle: passion for yarn | Schoppel Wolle
- Zauberball Stärke 6 2355 Garden Party 75% Virgin Wool, 25%Nylon (biodegradable) | Zauberball Stärke 6 | Zauberball | Schoppel Wolle
I used Schoppel's Zauberball and black yarn for the socks below.
If you want to go for a single color like my current one, you can play with a pattern. There are tons of patterns on Raverly (a SNS for knitters/crocheters). Just be careful you may spend hours on Raverly …
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#query=socks
3. Simple and quick
That’s right, knitting toes and heels can be complicated for the first time. But it’s not super difficult. You can make it. There are simple patterns. My favorite "lifestyle toe up socks" pattern tells us the basics of how to knit a pair of socks instead of a specific pattern. You can arrange the pattern as you wish. I almost remember it by heart.
Ravelry: Lifestyle Toe Up Socks - No Swatch Needed pattern by Charisa Martin Cairn
As socks are relatively smaller than most other objects such as a pullover, you can finish knitting them quickly. Only thing is that you have to keep your motivation to knit two same things.
4. You need only three tools
To knit socks, you only need a pair of circular needles. You don’t need a lot of double pointed needles. Minimal setting is a slimmer circular needle to knit lib, another circular needle to knit the main part and a needle to bind the top. I use a 3.0mm & 3.5mm or a 2.5mm & 3.0mm combination. The length of a circular needle doesn't matter. It may be difficult to knit if it's too short or too long. Mine is 60cm. You can pop up its thread part and adjust the length:
You can knit it anywhere
As a sock is small and you don’t need many tools to knit it, you can pack everything in a little bag. You can bring the bag around and knit your sock anywhere on a tram, a train, while waiting in a queue (like I do).
How about hosting Sock Knitting Challenge?
It’s an idea from 
That's it. It's a long post for the beginning of the year.
I wish we'll have a happy and productive Needle Work Year (as always).
新年初回の針仕事の月曜日ということで、靴下を編むのはこんなに楽しいよ！と投稿にしました。
毛糸の靴下は暖かいので編んだら使えるし、色やデザインで遊んで楽しいのでこの時期のふさぎがちな気分を上げてくれます。あとは小さいので早く編めて、持ち運べるのでどこでも編めるのもいいところです。道具がいらないのも始めやすいです。
この投稿をきっかけに靴下を編んでみるのも楽しいかもしれませんよ！
Needlework Monday is initiated by 
針仕事の月曜日は