It's All About the Socks

As I mentioned I was teaching my sister to knit socks when she came to stay recently. As she was only here for 4 days and we did quite a lot of things other than knit sock I was impressed that she managed to get one completely finished. And here it is.

The photo is rather over exposed, but never mind. Basic sock pattern but with contrast toes and heels, I don't know how keen she was to do those, but I thought it was a good idea to get her used to doing something a bit different right away. Anyway she couldn't take her needles home with her because she was flying, but I posted them on yesterday so I hope it won't be too long before she has a pair of socks to wear and show off.  It pains me to relate that neither her husband nor her son were at all impressed with this when she showed it to them. Perhaps if they tried knitting socks they might be more appreciative.

 

Talking of first socks, I recently bade a very sad farewell to these

 

 

 

 

These are the first socks I ever knitted. Done completely on 4 dpns, because 30cm circulars hadn't hit the UK at that point. My friend Elaine had to coach me in their use and I never really got on with them. I cast on one cuff far too tightly which meant that that sock was tricky to get on, and I followed the pattern slavishly not realising that really the cuff was far too short for my taste. Still, they started me on a very enjoyable journey and it was hard to say good bye.

 

And finally for today on the sock front there are these

 

I made these for Son No 1 knowing that they will need warm socks ( and hats and gloves and scarves ) for a Canadian winter. He really liked them, which was pleasing as they were time consuming to knit. The pattern on the instep was fiddly in the extreme. Anyway the idea was that they combined two of his favourite things; wolves and Terry Pratchett. The wool was called Oook, a reference to The Librarian at Unseen University who was turned into an Orang Utan in a magical accident. And the pattern is called Wolf Pack with the twisted cables up the sides representing single wolves coming together to form a pack.

 

I am busy just now with a huge and secret project for Christmas which means that my sock knitting is at a standstill. Have to say watching my sister work her way down her first attempt, I was jealous. I so wanted to get out a little 30 cm circular, a skein of 4 ply wool and just cast on a sock.