Let's talk about socks

First of all, thanks for the tips and suggestions in the comments to yesterday's post. Now I have a good starting point. I'm still skeptical, but I feel more grounded with the help on the pages where I was pointed. I also picked up Sensational Knitted Socks at the library. I haven't had a chance to thumb through it much, but it appears to be more along the lines of what I was looking for.

To start I decided that I ought to learn a new way to cast on. I only know how to do the knit cast on, but I've learned enough to know that it wouldn't be the best way to cast on for socks. The Knitting Answer Book suggested the long-tail cast on. The instructions and diagrams looked awfully complicated, but I think I figured it out. Keeping every stitch where it needed to be once I started splitting them among three needles was another ordeal entirely. I lost the last couple stitches and had to reposition the yarn in my hand to do them over. Happy to have done this correctly, although not without difficulty, I went charging ahead while forgetting that I needed to be working in rib for this baby sock pattern.

I knitted the eight stitches on the first needle before catching myself. Considering the length of time it took to get the cast on to stay, I chose not to undo these stitches. I didn't want to cast on again, and I knew that would be required if I undid those eight stitches. It's a practice project. Who knows if I'll actually give them to anyone? Forge ahead!

I worked the other sixteen stitches in rib but encountered additional problems. I was short a stitch on the second needle and then found that I had an extra one on the third needle. (I had counted correctly when I split them...I swear.) Since casting on and knitting one round had taken the duration of the second period of the Stanley Cup final, I scrapped my work and went back to the knitted cast on I'm comfortable with.

I've worked a few rounds in rib, so I haven't encountered anything I haven't done before. From the heel on is where it is going to get really dicey. I didn't have to buy any yarn or dpns to try socks, so I'm not out anything there. My patience supply might be another story when I get to the unfamiliar parts.