Dashing Back to Double Points

As if it hasn't been made obvious in the past, my preferred method of knitting is by magic loop.  I've heard people talk about the whole "two circs" thing, and it boggles my mind.  The whole two at a time socks thing, I love the idea of each sock being perfectly matched to it's mate, but being realistic, I think that would be far too fiddly for me.  I have a hard time with fiddly things.  I tend to get frustrated.  One of the reasons I like socks so much is the ability to just go until I'm done, and in a reasonable time, I've got a sock popping off my needles and into use.

Unfortunately, finding circulars in a small enough gauge for socks at the local craft store (because I'm on a budget and there was a sale) wasn't going to be a thing.  I worked with what I could get.  I've always been petrified of using wood or bamboo sock needles (because I tend to bend the metal ones, so if I bent those, what would my grip do to wood?)  However, metal needles hurt my hands so bad.  I find myself aching, which leaves me unable to knit.  Having little other option, I chose to take a chance and go with bamboo double points.  I picked up US 0 and 1.

I will freely admit that I didn't cast on the first chance I had.  I looked at them a few times and thought, "Screw that, I'll just break them!"  Then I realized I really had nothing else to knit, so it was bust out those needles, or sit around with nothing to knit.  I decided empty needles would totally prevent me from getting my Christmas knitting done, so there I was, finding myself casting on.

A crazy lock kneed spider of a sock toe.

This project was definitely a learning experience.  The first thing I learned was that I'm really just not a toe-up kinda girl.  I suppose if I were to be knitting from two balls, and were making socks for myself, that might be advantageous.  I could knit them as tall as I wanted, or just knit until I was out of yarn, probably making for knee socks, if not longer.  However, if length of yarn isn't an issue, I'd rather just go with top down socks.  I actually like grafting toes, and I'm definitely not all for the fiddly start of toe up socks.  I'd done toe up socks on DPNs before, but I'd forgotten how much it makes me crazy at the start.  I can't help but think how much it starts out looking like some sickly spider with some kind of lock knee disease, keeping it's legs out straight in all directions.  If it were a spider, I can bet that would be painful.  That works for me, since casting on toe up socks with DPNs is pretty painful for me.  You'd think I'd learn by now, but I keep deluding myself.  I'm hoping this is going to be the last time I make this mistake.  I'm confident it won't be.

The socks in question are the Time Traveler Socks by Liz Sedmak.  She said they were named both for the colorway of yarn she used, as well as for the way they flew off the needles.  I knit these out of the recommended yarn (which is a new concept for me) KnitPicks Felici in the Spooky colorway,  I'd seen some knit up in the same colorway on the project page and loved them.  I have to admit, while working up the foot, I felt the same way.  They seemed to simply fly along.  It was simple and exiting, perfect for watching Frozen, The Lone Ranger, or Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy with my kids.  I listened to a good bit of CraftLit while knitting recently as well.  It's great for stuff like this that almost seems to work up like magic.

The pattern side of this sock is a simple rib, nothing fancy.  Once you get the first row down in pattern, it's easy to see exactly what you need to do without referring back to the pattern.  I could probably knit the pattern in my sleep now, which is wonderful for knitting on the bus, while watching television, you get the idea.  At the end of the first night, this is how far I got, and I'd started knitting pretty late.  I was glad not to need a test toe because everyone was asleep.  As a result, this is the first one of the Christmas projects that wasn't obvious as to who it was for.  No one asked about it, so I said nothing about it.  Having started so late, I was a good way into it before the kids even had a chance to catch me knitting.  The really fun part is the sock is wide enough that it could probably fit my narrow foot.  This means they may not catch on to this not being knit for me, talk about sneaky!  They had no way of knowing that I hadn't forgotten who this sock was being knit up for, and maybe I was making these for myself, since I loved the colorway so much.  Of course I'm not a Halloween person (aside from it being the final marker for the start of NaNoWriMo (and that's a link to my profile, so feel free to add me as a writing buddy!)  I never would knit these for myself, but that doesn't mean I can't play at it.

The gusset of the sock was written a little less than clearly.  I have to admit, part of the flaw was that I've been exhausted.  The heat in my house has been working, well, less well than we would like.  As a result, I haven't been sleeping well, due to cold and aches.  This led me to not really following the instructions as well as I could have, which means the problem may be on me, not the designer.  Everyone else seems to get it just fine.  At the same time, the end result is kind of fantastic.  The whole gusset is a lot more invisible than it would have been if I'd done it the way called for in the pattern.

I have to admit, the sock does look a little strange to me without the obvious gusset.  The heel used (it's called a fleegle heel) is really easy and requires no picked up stitches or wraps.  It does leave a funky line up the side of the heel.  I'm not sure if I like the finished look o this heel, but I've already gotten several compliments on it, which is wonderful.  It's such a funky little heel pattern, which is something I totally love, funky designs that don't look like every other sock out there.  I'm all about having a unique result!

It's been a wonderful day for sock knitting.  I made two women's eyes bug out at how tiny the needles were, and how beautiful the finished product was going to look.  One woman's mom was a knitter.  The other woman was her mom!  I had to smile at that.  So many people are full of compliments and comments when they see me knitting socks.  It's so intimidating to so many people.  I find it funny because what socks are to people who fear the complexity of socks feel is exactly what I feel about sweaters, compounded with a bigger investment of time and money.  I just love how people react to my knitting in public.  I should do it more often.

The whole thing was capped off with a movie (sadly, not a Halloween movie) and pumpkin spice cookies.  Okay, to be fair, I didn't get to eat any of the cookies.  I'm not allowed to eat cookies, or at least that kind of cookies.  I can't handle the wheat and would be one hurting puppy if I ate them, but I could at least enjoy other people enjoying them while I knit away.  It definitely made for an awesome end to the night.  I've got a lot of errands to run tomorrow, so I'm not sure if I'll have much time to knit, but I'll at least be able to get the first sock done.  I'm really excited to see both finished socks paired up and tucked neatly in the box of Christmas goodies.  (I know, Halloween socks for Christmas...The Nightmare Before Christmas, anyone?)  Then I'll only have two more projects that absolutely must be done before Christmas, maybe three.  I need socks for one more kid, fingerless gloves for my mom, and maybe a pair of socks for my sister.  Given I've got a whole month left to do three projects (before the #grinchalong with The Knitmore Girls starts, at least.)  Then I'm done with my obligation knitting for the year, and I'll finally have attained my goal of knit gifts for everyone I'm gifting this year.  That would be a fantastic accomplishment!