Friday, March 14, 2014

sock knitting: my first pair!

One of my goals this year was to knit myself a pair of socks. I've thought about knitting socks for quite a long time but never thought I could actually do it, it always looked really difficult to me. I follow sock knitters like Andi and Amanda, they always have such lovely socks coming off the needles, I have serious sock envy when I visit them!

first sock!

Once I decided that I was definitely knitting socks, I went to the My Sister's Knitter KAL/CAL group to ask questions, everyone there is super helpful and supportive. I really wanted to get some fancy yarn but I talked myself into something less expensive, just in case I decided sock knitting wasn't for me. I ended up going with Knit Picks' Stroll Fingering yarn, I like this yarn a lot and it's not too expensive! I bought it in the Summer Blooms colorway.

I wanted to do toe up socks, so I got myself Knitters Pride Karbonz fixed circular needles in the 32" length and they're US size 1 (2.25mm). These are great smooth needles, I'm glad I got them, they made knitting socks very easy! The writing on the needles has already worn off though, I probably held them too tightly!

first sock!

I used the tutorial called Two Socks at a Time from Heidi Bears blog. I only did one sock at a time because I don't have a scale to split up my yarn. The tutorial is very clear and picture heavy, I'd send anyone wanting to try sock knitting out over there! For Judy's Magic Cast On, I used this youtube video to help me understand it better.

BAH!

I thought I'd stick this picture in to show what I found one morning. I woke up to find yarn all over my living room floor and my sock sitting there, it was not a pretty sight. My cat loves to eat my yarn! Luckily he didn't touch the sock, so I didn't have to start over. Just some untangling and I got back to knitting it pretty fast. But, I won't be so careless leaving my socks someplace unzipped again!

sock heel!

Knitting the heel wasn't too bad, I made a few mistakes. For my next sock, I will be using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern. It looks just like the heel I made but hopefully the pattern can help me not make the same small mistakes again.

first sock off the needles!

I finished one sock on Valentine's Day! I don't really do anything for Valentine's Day but having it finished was a nice treat for myself. I decided on finishing them off as shorter socks, since that is what I normally like to wear. The tutorial I used didn't say anything about finishing off the sock, so I looked around for a good way and decided on doing k2, p2 for 8 rounds. I used Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off to end my sock, it really is stretchy!

finished pair of socks!!

I had two finished socks on February 25th! They took me about a month from start to finish, not too bad for a first pair. I probably could have done them faster but I got side tracked by shop orders. I can definitely see how people knit so many pairs of socks, I can't wait to get started on my next pair! I already have the yarn and pattern ready to go!

I think that I linked up to everything that I used here, if I didn't or you have any other questions, please ask!

Have you tried sock knitting?