DH's Socks

My DH enjoys wearing clogs. An "old hippie", they remind him of the early 70's when he used to wear them in Germany, and, more currently, they are conducive to the weather here in the south. Easy to pull on and off if one decides to go barefoot, and it rarely gets cold enough to wear boots during the winter so a pair of socks work fine to keep feet warm in a pair of clogs during the winter months.

This being my first attempt at making socks, who better to practice on....? I decided to try one of those pattern making yarns, instead of spinning my own, for several reasons. The first, being quite obvious, is that trying to create a similar patterned yarn is impossible, and it is fun watching the pattern emerge as you knit, and then durability is a contributing factor. You really need a strong material, unless you want to take up darning as a past-time. Nylon, while synthetic, does lend to wearability<---is that a word?

As with everything else I thought I would teach myself, and felt I was doing ok, but when I met with the guild and showed my progress to EM and another sock expert, I discovered that I did nearly everything wrong from the needles to the pattern I chose. I was following a pattern offered online but with each row completed I began to notice that the stitches were awful loose, so I had a feeling the needles, even though I was using what the pattern called for, were a bit too large. I was using a 3mm and they probably would have gotten the job done but as the accomplished sock knitter from our guild pointed out, the looser the stitch the less support and elasticity they offer.

Working with multiple double pointed needles can be quite cumbersome, as I bet everyone will agree. When I asked EM how she manages all those needles at once she pointed out that a shorter length, makes all the difference, even if only by an inch. So after another fibre sister offered the use of a set she had I was amazed at the difference, still awkward, there no longer seems to be points everywhere while trying to get at my work.

So, now armed with the right tool, size #1 US needles at 6", and a good pattern with a sizing chart that offers more precise sizing; and ribbing options, which I probably don't need to be too concerned with since the colouring in the yarn will delineate the pattern not the ribbing, so much, I feel confident that I will be able to produce a decent sock....we will see.

I added this last picture not for the sake of documenting my project, but rather the nice 'one project bag' I found from Lantern Moon. I really like it. It is just the right size to carry a single project, and though anything from Lantern Moon tends to be a bit beyond my price range, their products are well crafted and absolutely beautiful.... and we know, or at least we should know, that we deserve to buy something for ourselves, ever so often, that we may not normally feel comfortable buying.