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Monday, December 31, 2012

Sock Obsessed

I first learned to knit when I was pretty young. My grandmother and mom were determined that I should have curly hair (though my hair has stubbornly stayed straight), so I would spend days at a salon twice a year under smelly curlers. Okay, it was probably more like half a day, but when you're a kid that is an eternity. To keep me busy and my complaints to a minimum, they'd give me something to do. Sometimes it was needlepoint, but more often (or at least that's how it seemed), it was knitting.
My junior year in college I finally decided to let my hair be what it wanted to be--really, really straight. And so ended my relationship with yarn and needles.
I've dallied in knitting a couple of times since. Once was a purse and eyeglass case that were part of a kit I got on clearance at Target. The purse turned out to me more useful as a hat, and I made a couple more hats for the hubby out of nice chunky, quick-to-finish wool blend.

So, a few weeks ago I was cleaning/purging/deep diving in my studio and came across a book I'd bought a couple of years ago: Basic Knitting. That and certain Facebook friends showing off their knitting accomplishments, I decided to give knitting another try. I'm not exactly sure why I decided to try socks, but somehow that seemed like the right project. As many of my fiber friends warned me, knitting socks is REALLY addictive.  You can get really run yarn, it's not a big commitment money or time wise, and everyone needs socks, especially to wear on those cold winter nights when you're sitting by the fire. Knitting. More socks. :)

I started with an excellent tutorial on Silver's Place. My first 2 pairs are worsted wool blends using 4 double-pointed needles.  Click here for that tutorial.

My third pair is from the same pattern, but with Kroy sock yarn. This is one of their "FX" yarns. It is much finer than the worsted, but still makes a very cozy sock.
 

Next up is my first attempt at a toe-up sock on 2 circular needles.