Socks are pretty essential to a knitter's collection of skills. I can't even tell you how often people have asked me for some handmade socks, and I am shamed to say that I have had to turn them down.
Part of the issue is my laziness with gauge. I cannot stress the important of proper gauge. If you do what I (used to) do and just cast on without measuring your stitches, your finished item will not fit. There have been so many times that I have frogged whole projects because they didn't fit. Believe me, that's not fun to do. So step one, of any project, is to measure your gauge.
Anyways, I have decided that I've gone too long without learning how to make socks. There have been so many excuses that I've made in the past, always other projects to work on.
Recently I was given some beautiful sock yarn, and it has tipped the scales. I'm determined to have my very own handmade socks. Being ambitious I picked out this beautiful lacy pattern, cast on, and almost immediately lost my place. Lace uses so many decreases and yarn overs that it is easy to get lost. After a few days of having them sit around untouched I decided restart.
I found the perfect basic sock pattern called Socks by the Numbers by Allison Griffith, and now that I'm started I can't stop. Honestly, I burned through the first sock in a matter of days. I was looking for instructions on how to knit a basic sock and I'm so happy with how it turned out. The level of detail in the instructions is fantastic. I even learned how to form the heel, which used to be so intimidating.
Forming the toe was pretty easy as well. I admit that I did have to look up the instructions on how to do a Kitchener stitch, like the pattern asked for. It was well worth it. The seam looks invisible. It's now all part of the knitting magic.
It's a free pattern written by Allison Griffith. She wrote the article in her blog as a special called "Sock Week", though I believe overall it took longer then a week. It is honestly the easiest and most fun pattern I've ever read. There were moments were I found myself laughing over some of her comments.
I feel like completing a pair of socks has been a really big step for me. Thanks for following along. We really learned a lot on the way.
Happy knitting!
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