After one week of knitting and pattern reading, I have finished my very first sock. Honestly, there are so many emotions I’m feeling it’s a bit odd. Of course now I need to begin the second sock but I’m hoping that I find it even easier than the first one. Maybe I won’t need to reference the video so many times and I’ll be able to just use my pattern.
It’s incredibly comfortable. So comfortable in fact that I slept with it on last night. That’s right, I slept with a single sock clinging to my foot.
I used size US 3 DPN to knit this sock, along with 50g of Patons Kroy Socks FX yarn, in Cadet colours (I believe). The yarn is a mixture of wool and nylon with just the right amount of stretch.
I thought the hardest part of the sock would be the heel, but that was actually one of the easier parts. There were only two ‘hard’ parts. One was picking up the instep stitches to bring the work back into the round. The second and most difficult part was the toe. I absolutely hated doing the toe. In fact I messed it up big time. That being said, I honestly don’t care, the rest of the foot is lovely. The toe method that was in my pattern was a grafted one, and I ended up dropping a lot of stitches and having to figure out which ones I had dropped so that the whole sock didn’t unravel. I’m thinking of just adjusting the pattern to my own liking when I reach the end of the toe in the future, maybe just plain stitching it up or something. I haven’t decided. One thing I’ve learned and I really enjoy about knitting (and enjoyed it a lot during my sock progress) is that knitting is flexible. For example, have too many stitches or do a left slanting decrease when you meant to do a right? That’s absolutely fine, in the grand scheme of things (like my sock) you won’t even notice these things. I’m sure there are other pieces of knitting where a mistake like that is unforgivable, but in my sock the only person who knows there’s an issue will be me. Especially because no one is going to be looking so closely at these.
Did I mention I’m proud? I know, it’s a bit silly, but I really am. My experience with knitting has been so different over the past few months than it had been years previously. I’m honestly not sure why I find that I am able to pick things up now compared to my previous attempts, but I AM glad that I’ve managed to get somewhere this time. I’ve owned my Craftsy courses on how to knit socks for years now, and as I read the patterns my eyes would glaze over and I’d lose track of what it all meant.
Coming up next on my needles will be the second sock to this pair (of course). I’ve got a few other projects in mind while I’m working on that. I’d like to do a prayer shawl for a friend (these don’t have to be religious, they’re basically shawls knit with good intentions and thoughts along with prayers, and given to a person who is going through a rough time in life) as well as some mittens or gloves. There’s also the second baby blanket I want to do for my other cousin (remember two of them are pregnant) and we’ll see what else. I’m hoping to continue learning new techniques and to improve the more I knit. It has been an amazing journey so far (and incredibly relaxing).