sockitude
Upon Lolly’s suggestion, I’m going to babble a little about our favorite topic of the month: socks.
This was my first sock. I say that in the singular because I never made its partner. Like Lolly, I was definitely not enchanted by the sock-knitting process when I made the first one. It wasn’t the pattern – the most excellent Stasia’s Toe-Up Gaugeless Short-Row-Garter-Stitch-Heel pattern, which (I think) is no longer on the ‘net – but the mechanics of my knitting. Everything was too loose, except the bind-off at the cuff, which was too tight. It was one of the first things I ever knit in the round, and I hadn’t yet figured out that gauge/tension in the round isn’t necessarily the same as when you knit flat.
But I went on to knit all the other socks I’ve ever made – 7 pairs, all for gifts – using that same basic pattern. Once I realized the toes came out neater if I worked top-down, I simply reversed the pattern. It’s a good basic sock.
When attempting to make Mom’s cabled socks, I tried a flap heel for the first time. I don’t like it at all. It looks neat if you do it well, but as far as I’m concerned, a short-row heel is a thousand times more comfortable – especially if you do it in garter stitch, which gives it good “squish”. I also never, ever graft toes. I find it infuriating. I just take the remaining stitches, gather them up with the yarn tail, and end it off. I figure that if that was good enough for Adam’s grandmother’s lifetime of sock knitting, it’s good enough for me too.
Tools? I’m a DPN girl, all the way. I realize this makes me some kind of sick freak, but I love love LOVE working with DPNs. I will never try any other method of sock knitting, simply because I don’t see the point. Oh yeah, and make my DPNs metal or plastic, please – never bamboo. I hate bamboo needles with a passion. Yes, yes, I know… sick freak… yadda yadda.
And yes, I’m a self-taught sock knitter. (I’m a self-taught knitter period.) I puzzled out DPNs and short rows and heel turnings and everything else on my own. Like Lolly, the heel gets me every single darn time. I think that little bit of magic is what makes socks such an appealing, gratifying, satisfying knit.
Yay! Somebody else who loves her DPNs!
wow, I thought I was the only one that didn’t see the big deal about bamboo dpns.
coolness.
Its nice to meet someone like myself. I am a self taught knitter and socker and like many other I did a lot of frogging i the begining. I find the guage on sock patterns to be off size. I use those tiny sock dpn’s that come 5 to a package and they give a nice neat knitted finish.
Unlike you, I love my bamboo dpn’s and used them alot in the begining as they helped me not loose my stitches when I was first starting to knit socks and mittens.