Tuesday, November 08, 2005

WooHoo It's a Sock!!!

I'm sooooo excited about knitting my first sock! I love socks. I wear socks around the house. I wear socks to bed. I just have this thing about soft, comfy socks to keep my tootsies toasty warm. Over the last year I've noticed that there is a cult following of sock knitters online. There are so many great patterns and yarns for socks! But, I had one major obstacle to conquering socks----double pointed needles.

I made friends with circular needles last spring...it wasn't easy with my strange method of "prop the needle in your lap, let go, and throw the yarn you righty girl" method of knitting. Those circulars popped out into the strangest contortions you ever saw and it was just murder to get them back into place for that next stitch. I couldn't even cast on and successfully knit one row with dpns. Even the bamboo ones slid all over the place and somehow I was knitting around inside out. Yikes! Forget turning a heel, I couldn't even knit the cuff! But... I kept on buying different sizes of dpns for the stash as they came on sale and the budget allowed, then I picked up some Kroy sock yarn in some of my favorite colors. Never say never, right????

Over the weekend I was surfing the KnitPicks website (yarn lust, you know) and ran across a free toe-up sock pattern. The cast-on and start sounded like something I could do, so I gave it a whirl. Before I knew it I was knitting with tiny (US1) dpns and things were much easier than my first attempts using US6 needles. (I do well with tiny things after many years as a neonatal nurse LOL). I had some gaps on one side of the toe, so I decided to frog and start over. But....the thought pops in my head....can you do it dpn from the cuff down????? Of course I had to try. Woohoo!!!!! It worked! I'm almost ready to work the toe on the first sock. This *is* fun!

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