Makana Socks

I've been knitting and blogging on and off for a really long time.  And as we get older, I think it becomes more critical to live out our dreams.  A long held dream of mine was to design and publish a knitting pattern.  The motivation hit me a time or two, but you know what they say: Don't rely on motivation for anything.  It is fleeting and unreliable.  Discipline, however, is unyielding.  Force yourself to follow through.  When I was a knit blogger, I tried and failed miserably to come up with something.  Fast forward to about a decade later and I rediscovered this dream when motivation hit me in the form of Ravelry and knitters on Instagram.  This time, I capitalized on the motivation to get me started and coupled it with discipline to finish the job!

Makana Socks

I present the Makana Socks.  In Hawaiian, Makana means "gift."  My legacy as a knitter is characterized by knitting things for other people.  Very few of the things I knitted have ever been for myself; I had a tendency to give them away.  But this brings me such great joy.  I love sharing my knitting with my loved ones and letting them know how special they are by giving them something I made especially for them.  My greatest hope is that others share this joy when they make these socks - either for themselves, or their loved ones. 

These socks combine everything I personally love about socks.  I make socks more than I make anything else, and my preferred construction methods are top down with a heel flap.  I recently discovered how to make a rounded toe which suited this textured pattern a lot better than the typical square toe.  The texture pattern itself is stretchy but structured.  Laid flat, it looks like a geometric waffle pattern but reveals mini cables when on the foot.  These socks hold their shape well; I dislike when socks start to slouch after wearing them around the house a bit.  The texture also goes well with a lot of sock yarns: variegated, speckled, solid, self-striping.  I look forward to seeing what people make with this pattern.

This is the first pattern I've ever written for publication.  The process has been so eye-opening.  From the design, to test knitting, note-taking, reknitting with adjustments, photographing, pattern writing, calculating, editing, and actually publishing...!  Whew!  To be able to do all of this truly is a labor of love and I'm more than a little excited to see it go up on Ravelry! 

I hope knitters enjoy knitting this pattern as much as I do.  I've already started another pair in a really fun rainbow colorway, and will probably be working on Christmas socks for my family in this pattern.

Aloha!