First Socks

My mother has tried to teach me to knit a few times, but I had never really been able to learn, probably because she is good at it, and I've never had the need-skill-to-get-things incentive.

In a few years I had managed to complete a pillow cover in stockinette, so I knew I could knit and purl somewhat, but I just didn't feel like starting a real project.

And then, in early 2012, after a warm winter it got unusually cold (between -5 and -15 °C), and as I wrapped myself in a cozy sweater my mother had made, I realized I had a serious lack of warm footwear. One thing my mother doesn't do are socks, so I realized I had a project!

first_socks/alien-tmb.jpg

When I passed from the local merceria [1] I noticed some balls of slightly fuzzy wool/acrylic/nylon yarn in black and off-white; I didn't know how many I would have needed, so I bought "a few", visited my mother to steal her unused dpn, and headed home browse the internet for patterns.

On knitty.com I've found the universal sock pattern and fell in love: generic, adaptable, a perfect starting point to learn about the structure of a toe-up, short-rows sock, while having the freedom to customize it. Since these were my first project, I just started with a stockinette feet, planning a simple contrasting strip around the ankle, but then stumbled on the bmp pattern and decided to use a row of aliens instead. The yarn wasn't the best fit for this kind of work: it's too fuzzy and it obscures the pattern, but I will repeat something similar in the future, with cleaner yarn.

[1]wikipedia suggests "haberdasher", but a merceria will sell not only notions, but also yarn, undergarments and home textiles.
first_socks/long_one-tmb.jpg

After I had finished with success my first socks, I remembered that I had wanted a long pair of striped, red and white, full lenght socks for a while, so I returned to the merceria to buy yarn, and started them.

For the foot I used the universal sock above, and then measured the width of my leg in few points and eyeballed where to increase / decrease. This worked fine up to the calf, then I had to redo a few times the decreasing part, but it's still nice practice :) (Or as my grandmother would say: “fà e disfà, l'è tutt laurà”, “doing and undoing are both work”.)

I took the following measurements:

first_socks/long_wip-tmb.jpg

With a gauge of 20 sts / 28 rows = 10 cm this resulted in bands of 12 rows with symmetrical decreases/increases 1 st from the back of the leg on the following rows.

Topped by 11 rows of 2k2p ribbing and cast off in pattern.

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While I was working on these socks, I found an unexpected surprise: right in the middle of one ball there were a few meters of blue yarn. Of course, when I found out I had used too much to be able to return it, but it was just a little, and I had bought plenty, so it was no big deal.

first_socks/flap_heel-tmb.jpg

After a few other projects I decided I had to try flap heels: with buly yarn I see no reason for it (short rows are quicker, and fit my feet quite well), but it had to be done at least once.

As a change from stockinette I've added a bit of patterning: the one in the center front is:

k10, p2, k1 - k1, p2, k10
k9, p2, k2 - k2, p2, k9
k8, p2, k2, p1 - p1, k2, p2, k8
k7, p2, k2, p2 - p2, k2, p2, k7
k6, p2, k2, p3 - p3, k2, p2, k6
k7, p2, k2, p2 - p2, k2, p2, k7
k8, p2, k2, p1 - p1, k2, p2, k8
k9, p2, k2 - k2, p2, k9
k10, p2, k1 - k1, p2, k10

while for the round at ankle height I worked the following pattern on each needle:

k3, p2, k2, p2, k3
k2, p2, k4, p2, k2
k1, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2, k1
k2, p2, k4, p2, k2
k3, p2, k2, p2, k3
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