I was incredibly happy to finish my very first pair of socks. I went step by step using a class from Craftsy called “My First Socks” – and it went wonderfully. The socks are comfortable, fit perfectly, and I couldn’t be happier. Of course I hope to make a few more pairs, expand my knowledge of ‘sock stuff’ and we’ll see if I can manage making fancier ones over time, but for now, I’m really happy with my plain basic ones.
The only ‘difficult’ part I had with the sock was when it came to the toes. The course goes on to teach you a method of chimney grafting. It teaches you how stitches lock together, and basically you knit an extra bunch of stitches like a chimney at the end of the toe, then tuck that into the sock, then link the stitches of your sock together and then remove the chimney. My issues is that with my first sock I ended up not linking the stitches properly (really easy to do when you’re working with sock yarn) and I ended up dropping all sorts of stitches which freaked me out because it could have unraveled the entire toe.
For the second sock I decided to do things a bit differently. I learned that the chimney graft is actually just an adaptation to the Kitchener Stitch, but it involves sewing (stitching) instead of knitting. I watched a few videos on how to do this stitch, and voila, perfectly grafted toes that look beautiful, and no stress from any dropped stitches. It was much less stress and I’m really glad to have found the stitch. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a comfortable sock before, great for those winter months.
Each sock took a bit less than 50g of yarn, and took approximately a week off and on of knitting to complete. It’s small enough that they’re portable for when you’re going out and about and want to bring your knitting with you (waiting for a doctor’s appointment as a good example). I did have a few issues with the type of yarn I used, it was uneven in some spots and there were three knots that I came across through the skein which really frustrated me, but for the price I suppose I shouldn’t complain. I believe I paid less than $10 total for both 50g balls, which isn’t a bad price for a nice pair of custom fit socks. Of course I’ll be making more.
I have three other sock courses from Craftsy, and I’m eager to see how those ones go. One issue I have with the classes is that I find the instructors take too long to get to the point and tend to flood the video with stories from their lives, which is great but I’m not trying to form a bond with the instructors I just want to know how to do xyz thing. That’s one of the reasons I really like the instructional videos on YouTube, I can go and find one and all it does is teach me what I want to know, thus making them MUCH shorter. The Craftsy classes can be hours long, and by the time I’ve made my way through an entire video my attention span has waned and I’ve moved on to a new project. I wish they had ‘optional’ classes that just taught you the technical aspects without all the story time. Still, they’re great teaching tools and they obviously work.
Now that my socks are completed I’ve moved on to a few other projects, the scarf that I wrote about yesterday, and a new winter hat that I’ve been working on that includes my first attempts at colour work. I think it has been turning out pretty well so far, but that’s a post for tomorrow! Happy knitting. <3