Socks, Finally

I have mentioned that socks elude me. I have pretty much done everything else knitty except a successful sock. I even did Fair Isle back in the 1970's with Lopi yarn that I bought in big bags at the Icelandic factory.

Well, I have knitted two single socks and frogged a couple. Traditional cuff down socks pose two dilemmas for me. One, I hate to finish and having the dreaded toe graft to do at the very end is more than I can bear. Two, I hate to pick up stitches and you have to do that on the heel. Also, I have "princess feet" and don't like a seam or ridge anywhere near my feet. Grafted toes and picked up stitches both produce lumps as far as I am concerned. Also, I feel like it is just too much guesswork trying to figure out where to pick up those heel stitches and to get the right number of stitches picked up, then there is the 'ridge' created. I know yarn is soft, but still.

But I have resented all the socks I see people knitting and posting on their blogs. Not that I think I even want to wear hand knitted socks, I just want to know how to knit them. After all, they are nice and portable. And cheap in the overall scheme of knitting.

I absolutely can't stand dpns. I knit loosely and those needles simply slide out of the stitches. Every time. I knitted a single sock using two circulars that was semi successful. I did not like the cotton yarn; not soft enough for princess feet. I decided that I might have actually had a pair of socks IF I had knitted 'two socks on two circulars', so I got my instructions and tried. I really did. And just about went insane. I spent more time untwisting and untangling the yarn than I did knitting. Those are frogged and rewound.

Well, dpns are out and I did not really like the dangling needles you have with two circulars. That leaves one long circular to learn. I practiced on some worsted yarn and fat needles (created a long circular out of my Denise's). I love the technique.

With all the aggravation I have described you are probably wondering why on earth I am still muddling over knitting socks. Pure stubbornness. And I love a challenge.

So I know I don't want to knit a cuff down sock again. I keep hearing about toe up socks, but I can't seem to find instructions that I can understand. But I want to try the toe up sock. mostly because I am stubborn as I said. I happened upon The Perfect Sock Pattern and loved the result. Amazingly, using the exact stitch count from the pattern actually made a sock that fit, since my gauge was different (I promise I did some math and thought it would fit, and you can try on as you go with toe up socks, anyway). I have completed one sock and am almost to the heel of the second. No second sock syndrome!!! No lumps, no seams. I am using Lion Brand's Magic Stripe washable wool and really like the feel of it on my foot, although the yarn is making my hands sticky. What's with that, anyway? And I love the striping yarn that hides mistakes.

The only downside of the pattern is having to do a sssp. THAT is awkward, even though I did find a video of the technique online but can't find the site just now to link. There HAS to be an easier way to get the same result, some sort of a "cheat". After all, I do cheat on the ssk. Ha.

The person who designed the sock pattern cited above indicated that the sock is based on Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. They just added a Turkish Cast On that I found surprisingly easy as compared to all the other toe up cast-ons I had tried to understand.

Interestingly, I will finally have a pair of wool socks to wear now that spring has sprung in the Carolinas!!! But wool breathes, right?