Sock Update

Last night I completed my first pair of socks. Ever.  Yay for me!  I give them to my child to put on so that I could see them.  She puts them on and runs off into her room to play.  She comes back five minutes later with socks in hand and says, "Mama, you need finish these."  Jack and I look at her, confusion on our faces. "Em, what do I need to do to finish these?"  She lifts one of he legs Harpo style and says, "You need to make it go up here."  She points to the very top of her thigh and then runs back to her room.  My child wants me to make tights. I'm never gonna win in the end, am I?

Rachel's First Epistle to Her Second Sock

November 9, 2010

Dear Sock,

I know we reached a milestone last night.  Your heel was successfully completed and it looks just like the picture.  The thing is... I have to go to work now.  As a matter of fact would you please stop calling for me at every stop light to pull you out.  I realize that I could get a good 7 or 8 stitches at the 5 lights between  daycare and work.  It's just not safe. I really don't want to explain to the police officer that will pull me over for distracted driving that I "just had to finish my sock."  I don't think he will understand.

I promise that when you are done that you will be loved just as much as your sister.  Just take a look at this picture.

I promise that she will love you just as much if not more because you will fit better.  I solemnly swear that as soon as I get home you'll have some work done and will be done in a day or so.

Sincerely,

Rachel the Novice Knitter

It's Looking like a sock!

So far so good.  It's starting to look like an actual garment that might be worn by my child.  She's very excited about getting them. And I'm having a blast making them.  They are the perfect lunch time entertainment.   The needles are Knit Picks Options Circulars that are nickel plated, size 3mm. They are a very smooth knit if a little too slippery for me.  I also, have a wood needle. I will try that one for the next pair.

The video below is the one that flipped the lightbulb on for the Magic Loop method.

 The Knit Witch is a lovely site where she sells hand dyed yarn.  She also sells these great pottery yarn bowls that her  husband makes. As soon as I find a safe place to knit I'm getting one.

Getting past the cast on

I finally have cast on enough to make a toe and it's actually looking something like a sock. I decided for this first one I'm going to use a basic pattern while I'm trying to figure this out.

 I'm not all fond of patterns.  I have a hard time remembering where I left off. I do have some help with that though.  I'm fond of Knit Minder Lite.  It lets me have multiple stitch counters per project. Yay!  I just have to remember to hit the button at the same time to finish the round/row.  I have a few short term memory issues.

So... the pattern I'm using... Simple Toe Up Socks  by Melanie Fraser aka Shoediva.  It's a good basic sock with easy to follow instructions.

Here's where I am so far...

The yarn is Patons Kroy Sock yarn in the Denim Jacquard color way.  I purchased it at Michael's Arts and Crafts (your welcome for the plug dh).

Show Me

Now that my finger has healed to the point where I can knit with a band-aid.  With the book I began figure out the cast on.  While the pictures were good and helpful I'm a person who needs to be shown how to do something. Which is a little rough when all the groups in town tend to meet at a time when I'm usually at work. And it really doesn't help that my schedule is not regular at best.

 My next stop was YouTube.  My search term was "Toe Up Socks."   Here is where I discovered Very Pink Knits .  She has a 4 video tutorial on toe up socks as well as many other techniques I look forward to trying.   She starts with the provisional cast on.



I wasn't very fond of that technique.  It has it's uses but it stressed me out trying to get the scrap yarn out.

I've heard such good things about Judy's Magic Cast On. I found this video from Knit Purl Hunter.



I did watch Cat Bordhi's tutorial as well but that left me with questions that this one answered.  I think this is it. Time to cast on.

Learning to Knit Socks

My goal this week was to really delve into learning to knit socks in a quest to never hear the phrase "Mama it has bit hiiiilllsss!"  This is my daughter every time I try to put shoes... and socks on her feet.  Lately, it has graduated to "Mountains Mama!" lately. Em has decided that she doesn't like the seams on the top of commercially made socks.


 I was more than a little derailed early in the week as I decided to wash my hands in the dish water and forgot that I put the chef's knife in there.  Yep, there is a big ol' gash in my middle finger.  It has such perfect placement that I could easily stick a 2.5mm needle in there and scream in agony as I try to keep the blood off the yarn. And nope band aids don't really help.


I decided to make good use of my time to do the research to figure out how to do this.  Quite a while ago I heard on the Knit Picks podcast and interview with a designer, the name completely escapes me at the moment, and she extolled the virtues of toe-up sock knitting. I am someone who likes doing the hard part of a project first.  This sounded perfect way to start for me. 


The first stop was the library.  Tulsa library has a fairly good selection of knitting books. This is where I discovered Wendy Johnson and "Socks From the Toe Up".  She breaks down with nice illustrations how to do each step of the process.  Ok, now I'm inspired!  


 A month ago I had bought some needles (dpns and circular). I bought some sock yarn from the hubby's store in preparation for this.  I now have to hurry up and wait for the finger to heal. *sigh*

Tips and Tails

My first work with more than one color. It's the small left overs of other projects I've done. It's all Caron Simply Soft. All I did was one back and forth in each color but man-o-man keeping track of the balls was not fun. No matter my attempts to arrange the balls they continued to tangle me. I don't think I could do fair aisle work. That's a lot of little balls to keep track of.

The next project (s).... The challenging project will be learning to do socks. The comforting project is a variation on the diagonal lace project.