The first pair of Grim Socks

• Ribbing: The whole leg is ribbing. The leg to the start of the heel was 7 inches.
• Heel: Common heel
• Sole: Reverse stockinette
• Body: Knit 2, purl 2 ribbing

Notes
Joh and I had been talking about how she prefers men’s fashions, and I complained that men’s socks are positively grim. So when I made these for Joh, I designed them to be approximately like the socks our father wore to work, only in a heavier yarn. Hence we called them the Grim Socks.

It was the first use I made of one of my favorite yarns, Puffin. I wish it came in more vivid colors (there’s no reason for it to be just for babies, and anyway, some people like to put babies in nonwashed-out colors) and now they’ve discontinued the very useful buckskin, but still it’s a great yarn. It is an alternative to heavyweight wool and is machine washable and dryable. I believe in easy-care clothes. A gift isn’t a gift if you give a responsibility with it. Anyway, the yarn is a little grippy, but you get used to it.

I also learned during making these socks that ladders are worse in purling than they are in knitting, as the reverse stockinette soles demonstrated.

SKS mentioned reverse stockinette, but I found the instructions inadequate to the execution of it and had to undo and redo a fair bit to figure out some things. The first I learned on this sock, how to decrease on the gusset when doing reverse stockinette: purl up to the last stitch before the pattern. Slip that last stitch knitwise, then pass it over the previous stitch. Work the instep pattern. Then purl together the first two stitches of the sole. Kitchener’s stitch is also different, but I didn’t learn the proper way to do that until the next pair of socks.

The toes were still too pointy. I resolved to make the body longer and the toe shorter and broader the next time.

The Girlie Socks

Begun: 11/30/07
Finished: 12/17/07
Yarn: Bernat Gloucester (which tells you how long that’s been in my stash!), which is worsted weight, 100% unmercerized cotton. Lavender for the ribbing, rose pink for the heel, deep rose for the toe, and natural for everywhere else.
Needles: Size 3 circulars for ribbing, heel, and toe; size 4 circulars elsewhere.
Cast on: 48 stitches
Pattern:

• Ribbing: 1.5″
• Heel: Common heel
• Sole: Stockinette
• Body: Corded Rib pattern (Sensational Knitted Socks [hereafter SKS] by Charlene Schurch, p. 38)

Notes
I tried. But I completed the heel flap with still picking up an extra stitch after the decrease. I ended up with the right number of stitches (14) on the needle, so I am konfuzzled, but I decided to continue. I’m sure there’s something wrong with my heel technique: the turn looks square, not round.

I picked up the heel flap stitches the “plain” way rather than the “pretty” way (see the pattern for Stash 1 because the stitches were too tight for the pretty way. I used a smaller needle for the heel because SKS says that will make the heel denser and more durable. It’s a new sensation for me, anything I’ve knitted being too tight! ^_^;;;

Again, these socks were made for Joh, who has a woman’s size 9.5 foot. Naturally, being girlie socks, I don’t think Joh wears them. My own fault, using those colors from my stash!

SKS is a great book, and most of my socks so far have been based on it. I bought Joh a copy so that we can discuss patterns via e-mail. As you may have guessed I intended to bring my socks up to an acceptable standard by knitting for Joh and then branch out to other feet.

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my efforts at knitting, particularly sock knitting, with what I learn, for the future reference of both myself and any interested knitter. Also, for those who actually know me, you can request projects based on what you see here. (You can of course request other projects, but this will help you to see what I have and have not done.)

I hope this is of some use to folks besides me!

Although this was the first post to my blog, for reasons past my understanding, it insists on coming after Stash 1, which I posted later the same day. I can’t seem to fix it. My apologies for the incorrect ordering. From now on, I post once a day, at most!

My first pair of socks

Notes
Unfortunately I don’t have much. I know from heel to toe is 9.5 inches, when I was shooting for 10 inches. I started decreasing at 8 inches, and so the author’s “couple of inches” was 1.5 for me.

Joh used these as bed socks and apparently was quite happy with them while they lasted (which was until early 2009, at which point they got too stretched out). I remember that I did the heel about three times and was unable to turn it until I viewed the video on it at KnittingHelp.com. As usual, I knitted very loosely.