Suddenly, without warning, socks have become one of the most time consuming things in my life. The cuff, the leg, the heel flap, the heel turn, the foot...and finally, the toe. A sock is actually a thing of complication and beauty.
There's a reason I'm nutty about socks, and it's because I have just (within the past 3 weeks) learned to KNIT MY OWN SOCKS!! Yep. It has long been a desire of mine to learn to knit socks. I know, I know - they're $8 for 6 pair at WalMart, right? But they're white and boring. There's no sense of fun or adventure with those socks. No sense of accomplishment or any sense of pride in wearing them. They're just something that you need, that you wear (some of us) every day, and well...they're socks.
I have been a crocheter for 5 years. I can crochet socks, but what happens to beautiful, self-striping sock yarn when you use it for crochet isn't pretty. And the stitches are thick, and I find crocheted socks hard to wear. Previous to February 13, I could knit, but not well, and only in a straight line. I'd tried socks, only to be baffled by the number of needles (3 or 4 to hold the work and one to work with), the tiny stitches, and the fact that they're done in the round. I'd tried - I have several books on socks, I have sock yarn, I have the needles...again, only to be totally frustrated and disappointed in myself when I couldn't understand how to move from one needle to the next. What was WRONG with me??
A friend offered a sock knitting workshop. I immediately registered. It was local and it was with other women, like me, who wanted to learn to knit a basic sock. There were 8 of us there that day, and we cast on. I learned to move from one needle to the next (not nearly as hard or scary as originally thought). I learned how to make sure I wasn't twisting stitches. I learned to manage the 4 needles that hold the work and the one in my right hand to actually knit the stitches. Holy cow, I was knitting! And not only was I knitting, I was knitting a sock!!
This is where I was after the workshop. Oh, how proud I was!!
I knitted and knitted and knitted, and then the unspeakable happened. I dropped a stitch. Ok, so I'm not a knitter. I panicked. And looked at the piece over and over and over, until I found the stitch. I set the sock aside until I could find a live person who could help me - it was only a week until the next craft guild meeting and someone there would know. I turned to my friends on Ravelry - specifically on the Juniper Moon Farm Sock Knit-A-Long (KAL) message board. (I owe undying gratitude to those folks - you have no idea!)
In the meantime, I started a second sock. In a beautiful yarn from Juniper Moon Farm called "The Orchid Thief." I'm a shareholder in the fiber CSA, and their yarn is AMAZING! Here's how that one started:
I worked and worked and worked on this one - I actually got all the way to the heel while I stressed over the dropped stitch on the first pair. I made the heel flap. I k now it's silly, but I was pathetically proud of this. Time to "turn the heel."
Um...yeah. I'd been told that the instructions for turning a heel make no sense, and you simply have to blindly follow. The end result will be a heel. Honest.
I was a non-believer. I couldn't manage the process to decrease on the one side. I dropped stitches. Thank heaven for YouTube and all the knitting help videos. I picked up stitches. The yarn got messy (fuzzy) and hard to work with. I "talked" to my friends on the Sock KAL board. I didn't include a lifeline, and I didn't know how to un-knit (I do now!). I stumbled through until frustration got the better part of me, and I set it aside. And then forgot what row I was on in the pattern. That sock's a loss, and I'm afraid I'll have to rip it out and start over. But hope springs eternal - there's a Guild meeting on March 20, so maybe someone can help me learn to un-knit so I can get back to the end of the heel flap and start over.
OK, so back to the first sock. Again, thank heaven for YouTube. Up came the stitch and we achieved status quo. I was SO proud of myself!! I continued on. The leg was completed. The heel flap was completed. I was at the danger point again - the heel turn. I put in the lifeline that was suggested at the end of the heel flap. And yes - it saved my life. There's a process called slip-slip-knit (ssk) that I still cannot manage. I fudged it and knit 2 stitches together instead. (my sock instructor told me this was OK - she'll teach me ssk on the 20th). The heel turn progressed...and presto! Just as I'd been told, all the fiddly instructions that I did not understand but blindly followed produced a heel. Not the prettiest heel, I'm sure, but a heel nonetheless. ON TO THE FOOT!!
At this posting, I'm an inch away from completing the foot:
The toe is next, and I hope it goes more smoothly than the heel did. Then there's "kitchener stitching" the toe, which I hear is complicated. But you know what? I made a heel, so I think I can handle it!
On a side note, I'm so proud of myself that I've ordered from Juniper Moon (
http://fiberfarm.com/), who in conjunction with The Unique Sheep (
http://www.theuniquesheep.com/) offers the most beautiful sock yarn EVER and have plans to make socks for my sister in law. And whoever else asks for them, because yeah...I'm a bit of a showoff.
