Socks!

And what have I been working on lately? well, some socks :D

I knitted my first three pairs recently:

Bandy Legs

Welsh Country Stockings

Liab

The first pair I knitted for myself for the Ravellenics, and the last two pairs for my dad's birthday. They are modelled by my BF who has slightly longer feet, I await a report from my dad, he is picking them up at he post office tomorrow!

So far then I have tried a short row heel and toe, a Dutch heel (I think both my dad's socks qualify as Dutch heels?) and quite rounded toes grafted at the tip. I have to say I am not a fan of the short row heel or toe (and my flat St st is always rubbish as can be easily seen on the heel...). I really loved Liab's "ribbed" cushy heel. Overall a fantastic pattern (and free!).

I modified the Welsh socks since the pattern was for a rather pointy toe and my father (and I inherited this to an extent) has very, very square toes. I knitted the following toe that I found somewhere on the internets (unfortunately I forget where):

Decrease rnd toe:
Needle 1,3: k to 4 sts to end, k2tog, k2
Needle 2,4: k2, ssk, k to end

Even St st 4 rnds.
Decrease rnd.
Even St st 3 rnds.
Decrease rnd.
Even St st 2 rnds.
Decrease rnd.
Even St st 1 rnds.
Decrease rnd, repeat decrease rnd until 7 sts per needle.

So with 28 sts remaining, Kitchener St.

I love this toe and I think I will be using it for myself as well!

Liab has a pointier toe than this but still rather wide, and I really like how it gradually merges the ribbing into the toe. It fits Pim's toes so awesomely (picture above), I should use it for his socks in the future!

The cabling in Liab was challenging. I do not have much experience with cables, and the yarn is rather on the thin side, and I used 2mm needles (I estimated, correctly it seems, that I needed smaller needles due to foot size + my loose knitting), this made for rather challenging cabling, especially since I refuse to use an auxiliar needle, it was slow enough knitting as it was. I switched needles two times and finally settled on wooden needles which worked best with least amount of wrist pain (steel was better for cabling but UGH).

So, have I become addicted to sock knitting? I do not think I will now knit socks exclusively, but I see more socks in my future ;)

Next pair will be for Pim and next I am already envisioning a rather special pair of boot socks I will have to write the pattern for!

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