Practice Socks

Good news: There was a huge sale on yarn today at my local Michael's.

I went a little nuts.

Bad news: All the yarn I bought is the wrong weight/type for my intended upcoming projects.  It's not my fault that my phone wasn't able to access my Ravelry queue from inside the store!  I grabbed the weights I thought I needed, but somehow they all ended up being off by one or two wpi. :( 

But hey, I still got a ridiculously good deal on the skeins I bought, and I know I will find a purpose for them sooner or later!

Anyway, this post is actually about socks. Guess what? Socks are pretty difficult to knit. Especially when your previous experience is limited to scarves and hats.

I used, and highly recommend, this free Comfy Sock pattern. With its chunky weight wool and size 11 dpns, it's the  perfect training pattern for newbie sock-knitters.  The pattern is still confusing if you've never encountered terms like "heel flap" and "shape gusset," but that's nothing a few YouTube tutorials can't fix. I owe everything I know to those tutorials! In particular, a special nod to this VeryPink Knits tutorial which walks through each step of sock-knitting in a six part series. Although she's using a different pattern, the basics are the same. 

But all the patterns and video tutorials aren't the same as practical application, so I grabbed my chopsticks dpns, and gave it a go.

My first result was this:

I should mention that I neglected to find out what ssk actually meant the first time around for this pattern, which accounts for about 60% of the lameness.  Anyway, this sock is, needless to say, a write-off, unless you happen to be a Dr. Seuss character who is entering an ugly sock contest.

To be honest, I was pretty discouraged at how complicated sock-knitting turned out to be, and as a result I did not make a second attempt for a couple weeks. Then I had five days off from work over Christmas, and there seemed to be no excuse not to try again. Same pattern, with a few extra tutorials behind my belt:

The trick for knitting on DPNs is not to twist the stitches when joining in the round-  Or poke your eye out.

Yes, that is a Martini. Because sock-knitting is a party.

We interrupt this sock to bring you this tangled mess.

Finally finished

Not terrible, right?

Let's put it on:

The heel always wears a hole eventually- why don't I just knit the hole to be there right from the start?

There's a few problems to be sure, but one gaping one that seemed a little more obvious than the rest.

Some subsequent research online revealed that the dreaded "gusset gap" is a common plague among new sock-knitters.  As demonstrated in this tutorial by KatAutum, the problem can be solved by picking up an extra two stitches next to the heel flap, in addition to those picked up when initializing the gusset. The result means you need an extra two rounds of decreasing the instep, but the gap will be gone!

Having learnt this, let's try again!

Third time's a charm?

Less demented then its predecessors   

As good as its going to get.

Not sure if I can say I've graduated the kindergarten sock class yet, but at least it fits a human foot and is free of any gaping holes. Which is 2 for 2 as far as I'm concerned.

I'm going to take a break from socks for now, but I'm hoping to try another sock pattern soon using smaller yarn and needles, in hopes that the finished product will be less slipper-like.

Now it's time to spend the next several hours on Ravelry in attempt to find some pattern(s) I can use all my new yarn for!