I wanted to find something special to knit my mom for Christmas. She's not really a scarf person, and there certainly wasn't time for a sweater or anything, so I figured socks might be a good idea. This was my first attempt at knitting a sock and I must say it was kinda fun. They look complicated, but probably aren't' as bad as they look. I had a great pattern from the magazine Knit Simple and did a little research on Ravelry.com first to see what others thought of the pattern. It sounded like a good place to start. Here's the yarn I chose, Lion Brand Sock Ease, w/ aloe to sooth the hands while knitting
You start this pattern at the cuff of the sock and knit down the length of the leg. To knit the sock as a tube, you use 5 tiny needles and spread the stitches among them. This is also how you would knit a sleeves to a sweater or finger on a glove if you did not want to have a seam down the whole thing. It's a little tricky to get going, but easy once you get the hang of it. After the cuff is the desired length, then you knit the "heal flap" the part of the sock that extends down over the back of your heal, then you "turn the heal" where you make the knitting cup up so that it fits tight to the rounded heal of your foot.
Here you can see the heal flap knitting as a separate piece from the rest of the leg of the sock.
Next you pick up stitches from the portion of the leg you left on the needles, and then heal and knit the "gusset" which is the triangular space next to the heal on either side of your foot. Every other round you make decreases by knitting two stitches together, this makes this part of the sock narrow so that it will fit the flatter part of your foot. Then you just knit the top and bottom of the sock for the rest of the length of the foot until you hit the toe area. Finally you do another round of decreases specially designed to make a perfect point in the shape of the toe and, you are done!
So, I've made exactly one sock. Gave it to my mom for Christmas with the promise of its matching pair. I've got a few baby projects to get done before I can finish the second sock but hopefully it won't be too long. I see more socks in my future, they aren't as hard as I expected, and the pattern choices are endless. I think I might make the next pair for myself :-D
