As I'm about to cast on for my first Jaywalker socks, it strikes me that there are some patterns that each knitter ends up knitting. It seems everyone I know has made a pair of Jaywalker in the same way all readers have read Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights.

Which patterns deserve a place in the knitting canon?

Rowan's Birch (http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hpi.net/whitestarsams/images/knit/birch2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hpi.net/whitestarsams/knit/birch.htm&h=400&w=291&sz=23&hl=en&start=12&tbnid=MMHE7vE7f7t5rM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=90&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drowan%2Bbirch%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10% 26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX) in Kidsilk haze is something that everyone seems to have made, and Clapotis (http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTclapotis.html) is the other biggy. I suppose that accessories are more universal, there's not many people who don't fit a scarf, where jumpers etc are more down to your shape and style.

I keep seeing people who make the monkey socks. They are quite cute, but I don't get the obsession.

You'll understand once you knit some littlemissy - they're addictive!

I was going to suggest Clapotis. I've succumbed to both that and the Jaywalkers. Quite a few have knit Fetching (guilty) and the Backyard Leaves scarf (guilty - in progress) too.

Many of the Knitty patterns have knitalongs on-going in blog land.