Me as a Bootie

You may not be able to believe it, but a mere year ago I was not privy to the joys of sock knitting. I was, incredible as it seems, scared of sock knitting. It looked so complicated... Since the beginning of this year I have completed a whopping ten pairs of socks (not nearly as many as Trek, but not bad for a beginner).

I finally picked up the dpns because I wanted to knit something for my Boy. He didn't want a hat or a scarf, and the thought of knitting an entire sweater scared me more than a pair of socks at that point.

So, I knit my first sock from the training sock pattern on Knitty. In fact, I have to credit Knitty for helping me realize that I didn't have to make the same scarf over and over. I looked at the website and realized that I could knit these patterns and that I wasn't stuck with whatever crap yarn was at WalMart, that there was a whole community of knitters out there, and I had a whole lot of catching up to do!

This is my trainer sock, made out of the most uncomfortable red acrylic crap I had in my stash. I then went onto my first real socks, knit with Jawoll on us1 needles. I then learned about the knitter's lobotomy; I knit the socks in stockinette and Boy has size 13 feet. Once they were done he absolutely loved them, they are now his "special occasion" socks and are holding up very well, especially since I didn't realize that I should use the thread included to help the toes and heel from wearing through. Eh, there's always next time.

I am currently working on my second pair of socks for myself, and I have to admit that this is my favorite sock yarn so far:

The pattern is Pomatomus from the illustrious Cookie. The sock yarn is the amazing aloe and jojoba infused Austermann Step from my illustrious secret pal The Knitting NICU Nurse. Now I really feel like I've hit the big time, knitting-wise.

I've discovered that I love working with bamboo dpns for socks, there's just something wonderful about knitting wonderfully useful things with tiny bits of wood. I have resized projects and done other wonky things to work with my preferred gauge, I've substituted yarns, done lace, cabled, stranded, and even another plain stockinette sock. There's one hurdle I still need to get across to make me feel like a sock expert: I've only done the flap heel, but would really like to try another sort of heel. Darn my timid knitter's heart!

Speaking of indecent affection for socks, Aija made a comment about the little plastic stoppers that come with the Options cables I reviewed here. I have actually used the stoppers, but only to hold the sleeves while I knit on the rest of the sweater. It turns out that the cables are too long for sleeve knitting, so I've turned to my trusty bamboo dpns for the rest of the ordeal.

Oh, and I'm not sure where the poll went, but it has vanished... A drawing will be held for everyone who commented on this post as soon as Boy and I see each other conscious. I have him pick the winner to make sure that I am completely fair. It also makes him feel very silly, which I like very much. I hate working the morning shift while he works graveyard!