If you’ve knit one of my patterns, you might have noticed I tend to have a tight gauge, and as a result, my knits can be a little lumpy when I’m done (as you can see below). If you’ve got a sock with any sort of lacy pattern, blocking will be especially important to open out those stitches. But even if there isn’t any lace, blocking will help your stitches look more even and uniform.
Okay, let’s say you don’t really care much about the stitch definition and just want to pop some socks on your feet. That’s legitimate, especially if you’ve just finished a pair of plain vanilla socks. But if you don’t block my socks, all those puckered stitches and seams are palpable. The ridge along the heel flap where I picked up stitches feels lumpy and doesn’t lay as flat. I want my socks to feel good against my feet, so I take a few extra minutes to block them once I’m done.
I try not to be too precious about my knits, but one thing I do spend a little mental energy on is figuring out how to wash them. Superwash wool is theoretically machine-safe, but I’ve felted superwash wool socks before. Now I hand wash all my knit socks for at least the first time. When I block knit socks, it gives me a chance to see how they interact with water. I can see what the fibers do, whether the dye runs, and so on. I like having this measure of control so that I don’t end up ruining 20 hours’ worth of work.
Knitting is a personal process, and people should feel free to make the trade-offs that work for them. That’s more important than any of the considerations in this post. However! If you weren’t blocking your socks just because you didn’t see the point, and now this post is giving you something to consider, I hope you’ll give it a try. It’s really improved my sock-wearing experience.