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Thursday, June 21, 2018

My First Socks

I'd never had any real desire to knit socks--I hardly ever wear them, and if I do, I complain about it--but it was a beginner's Knit-A-Long (KAL) and since these are skills I will need if I do sweater sleeves, I decided to try.

OMG! You don't even want to know the trouble I had using Double Pointed Needles (DPN). Every cast on I did left me with a huge gap between the fourth needle and the first needle. Yes, it takes four (actually five) needles to knit in the round unless you use a different method (which I hope to learn soon). I must have cast on 90 times and couldn't get rid of this gap. I went to the group where the KAL was being hosted and sent out an SOS. I got so much encouragement!

The two suggestions I used were 1) add one extra stitch to the final needle when casting on and 2) tie the tail to the adjacent needle.

When I first started after getting help, I wasn't using the second item, just item 1 and I still had trouble. It was only after I started tying the yarn onto the needle and then picking it free once the join was safely made that I was able to complete two cuffs for a pair of socks.





With the hard section one done, I was confident section two would be a breeze. All I had to do was knit for four inches. I could do this without a problem, right?

Wrong.

I thought it looked wrong as I was knitting, but I shrugged it off. My stitch marker was still on the outside--everything was fine.

I finished sock one and started on sock 2. Sock 2 looked different. I looked at pictures of other socks being knit for this KAL. Everything looked my sock 2 and not like sock 1. I checked the instructions for the next section and nope, we don't turn the sock inside out to knit the heel.

Yes, I knit an entire sock leg inside out.

I tried reversing it, but now the cuff looked bad, so while I think it would have worked if I'd kept knitting, it would have been ugly. Plus I had a few dropped stitches.

I ripped the sock apart and started the cuff over again. Yes, I am way, way, way behind everyone else on this KAL, but I am going to have a pair of socks at the end of this no matter what!