jaywalkers!
Look look LOOK! My first pair of socks! I did it! I finished them!
Pattern:Jaywalkers, from Magknits. (A name that makes no sense to me, I realise: in German, I don't think there's a word for jaywalking, because it is so taboo; in Ireland, by contrast, ignoring all lights and zebra crossings is so common that, again, it is just known as "crossing the road." I know I'm home when all the police jaywalk.)
Yarn: Regia 4-fädig Nation Color sock yarn, in colour 5399, 75% wool 25% polyamide
Needles: 2mm Addi metal double-pointed needles
Time sucked: A week. I knitted like a woman possessed. My fingers are falling off of me.
Whoa. It's not true, folks: socks are NOT easy. Particularly not for a reading knitter like me. You see, confession: I'm not a perfectionist knitter. I admire Eunny Jang's utter devotion to detail and process no end, but alas, I have to read while I knit. Or watch a film. Or talk. I can't be counting and watching all the time, my head would fall off with the boredom. So the socks are full of mistakes and wobbles, and many of them were not just learner mistakes, they were avoidable, but was I going to frog? On TINY needles? Hell no.
But look! Look at the gorgeous colourdiness of them! I particularly love their anarchic non-matchiness, and the teeny tiny tip of purple on the toe of one sock. So very cute.
Here are the heels, which caused me no end of grief. Not the turning so much as the picking up stitches: I tried two methods, one the one I knew already, which leaves a slight seam, and one a fancier method picking up slipped stitches, and neither was much fun and both caused sweating and misery and ugh, and there are still little holes in the corners of the gussets, which I'm not sure how best to avoid.
Yes, I do have a birthmark. And weak ankles, to boot.
Neelia is right: handmade socks feel completely different. It's almost as though they were tailored, not knitted: a perfect, stiff fit, tight to pull on and bulky to wear. I do like them, but do I have the bug? Not yet, I think. My hands are damned SORE. But I am kind of bursting with pride, I do have to admit.
7 comments:
Those are gorgeous! I have not yet braved the sock-ness but I plan to one day
Oh! So shiny! I am in awe, particularly as the second sock of my fair pair continues to mock me heel wise. Woe.
Horray! Well done! They look fab! Picking up stitches is never fun. As for the hole, I think if you pick up the little strand between the two sides, you can avoid it but it doesn't always work.
By the way, I meant to ask you where you got your shoes, as they are well funky :D
I am deeply impressed. Deeply. I've never tried socks, but I want to, now!
I love them!
I had to comment, because I'm just like you in that I'm most often doing something else as I knit, making it tricky to pay close attention to details. I envy those-*cough*-Eunny-who emphasize every subtle technique, but in the long run, I realize that at least every time I pick up my textbooks I can be twice as productive.
Fantastic socks! And rainbows - eeee! I'm going to have to try them, now - I gave up on my first attempt at socks because neither Meg nor I could make sense of the pattern when it came to turning the heel. Boo.
I have that hole too! I think I'm just going to darn it with a bit of yarn... Jaywalkers are my first socks, and I'm finding that the second sock is considerably smaller than my first, and the pattern doesn't allow too much stretch. Don't care, they are so fun. Your stripes are great!
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