However, actually completing two sweaters boosted my confidence greatly--after all, how many people can say they have knit an entire sweater? (Even if mine are tiny, size 12 month sweaters. . . they still count!)
So. . . mid-April found me in possession of a skein of sock yarn, a pattern for some simple socks (with heels, not the easy-as-pie heel-less tube socks!), and a set of size 2 double pointed needles. Which have come to be known as "Mom's knitting toothpicks", courtesy of my daughters' reaction when I showed them the skinny little needles.
My hand, holding a 'knitting toothpick'.
This is my first project done on the double pointed needles. When I made my hat in February, I used dpns to finish off the crown, but those were much larger; a size 7. My socks will be the first project to be completely knit on dpns.
It takes a bit of juggling to get used to working with them. But once you get it down, it's really cool. Here's the cuff of my sock underway, set on the floor for the picture so you can see how the needles are as you knit a tube (the cuff) with them.
Yes, you do see four needles in there!
Your eyes are not playing tricks on you.
Once I had the cuff done, which measures six inches long, then I left two of the needles alone and worked solely on the third one, making the heel flap. That has proved to be the most challenging part for me because it needed to be an exact number of rows (as opposed to the cuff, which was just knit until I got to a certain length), and I kept losing count. After counting, and recounting, and recounting again, and doing the next step, then finding out when I tried to move on to the step after that I most likely had way too many rows, I tore out the entire heel and started the heel flap over, making a tally mark on scrap paper each time I finished a row. I hear there is such a thing as a row counter available at stores to use when you are knitting. . . might look into that for when I don't have scratch paper and pencil nearby.
Anyway, here is the sock with the heel flap done in the correct number of rows. (Hallelujah!)
Heel flap done,
and heel 'turned'.
Once the heel was knit correctly, I did the next step, which was 'turning' the heel. That is really neat, as it makes the cup of the heel, and all you have to do to create it is follow the directions precisely, which wasn't hard at all.
the back of the sock,
showing the turned heel.
Doing the gusset was a bit tricky, mostly because the directions weren't all that clear. They started with you having 18 stitches on needle one, and proceeded to instruct me to pick up 16 stitches from the side of the heel flap with that same needle but then went on to direct me what to do with needle two (knit across all the stitches on needles two and three making a new 'needle two' with the total), plus pick up 16 more stitches for needle three, and end with "25 stitches on both needles one and three, and 32 stitches on needle two." Say what? 18 + 16 equals 34, not 25. So that took a bit of thought, reading four or five times, analyzing, and finally concluding that I was giving 9 of those original 18 stitches on needle one to needle three to come up with the magic 25, 32, 25 because nine plus sixteen definitely made twenty-five, whereas eighteen plus sixteen definitely was not adding up.
After that it was smooth sailing, just knit, knit, knit until it was time to do the toe decrease. That knitting was a breeze (watched the movie Argo with DH while knitting this part), and the toe decrease was easy too.
sock, all done except the toe graft,
or kitchener stitch, to close the toe.
To close the toe, I did a kitchener stitch, following the directions. It worked like magic, and suddenly I found myself with a finished sock in my hand!
ta da! a hand made sock!
Now I just have to make it's mate, so I can wear them proudly. ;0)
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