As a relatively inexperienced knitter, I didn't stray far from simple beany hats, scarves and... well that's pretty much it, but then I got a little more confident and decided I wanted to try something a little more testing. When I first found my mother-in-law's double pointed needles I was a little terrified at the prospect of so many pokey bits at once, but my mum suggested looking up a sock tutorial and giving it a go.
I perused the web for something simple enough and not completely daunting and came across this tutorial called Silver's Sock Class. I had a read through and was pleasantly surprised at how clearly everything was laid out, there were pictures, colour coordinated stitch numbers and needle by needle instructions.
I decided that Arjan would be the lucky owner of sock test run #1 and let him pick out some yarn for it. He went with an alternating white/grey/black and, with needles in hand, I went boldly into the unknown!
The first few rounds were hell, I won't lie. I was being stabbed left, right and centre and had an almost overwhelming urge to throw the whole thing across the room and cry. But I soldiered on and after a while began to get the hang of manoeuvring this point here and turning that point there to obtain the minimum wounds.
Now don't ask me what yarn weight I was using, I still have no idea how to work that out if I don't have the packaging in front of me, so I went with the sock weight instructions as I would rather the sock were a little too big than a little too small.
I don't remember how long it took me to complete sock #1, but I remember being fairly obsessive with it as I was terrified of putting it down and not being able to find where I was again.
When it was finished I was amazed at how sock like it was! There were no unsightly holes, lumps or bumps and more importantly, like Cinderella with her glass slipper, it fit Arjan perfectly!
After the stress of completing sock #1, I started sock #2 but then decided I needed a break to recuperate.... and didn't pick up my needles again for the next 6 months.
As previously mentioned, I decided to start knitting again a couple of weeks ago and, fearing that I had forgotten how to knit, I picked up an unfinished circle scarf with a simple knit 3, purl 3 pattern to ease myself back into it.
Upon the completion of the scarf (which may well feature in a post sometime soon) I knew it was time to pick up the tiny ring of ribbing that was the start of sock #2's ankle.
It went swimmingly! There were only a couple of incidents when I sat questioning the universe why I had done this to myself, but they were fleeting and before I knew it, I was grafting the toe of sock #2!
Nervously, I took both socks in hand and held them heel to heel and lo and behold, they were the same size!!
I had done the impossible (for me anyway) and created, with my own two hands, a pair of socks! I am so proud of myself, I feel like I could knit socks for an army!
Because I used thicker yarn, these are lovely, chunky, toasty socks and I think I'll buy some of those little sticky-pad-things for the sole so they're like slipper socks. Anyway, here they are modelled beautifully by their new owner!
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| Ankle ribbing |
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| Here you can see the diagonal line of decreasing stitches for the toe |
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