Time for toasty feet!

And they’re finished!!!!

Oh I’m so proud of myself. Prouder of these than anything I’ve done in a long while. So proud, I had to chase Himself around the house shouting for him to ‘LOOK AT THEM!’ and waving them as close to his face as I could manage.

It’s taken a while and they haven’t been without their problems, but it was all worth it for the toasty end result.

Lets have a look at the stats

Yarn:                     Stylecraft Head Over Heels

Pattern:             Winwick Mum Sockalong pattern

Tools:                   Hiya Hiya Sharp Short circular needles

For my first pair, I think I picked the right yarn. Not so expensive that I was afraid to mishandle it a bit. Soft enough to be lovely to work with, and vibrant enough to keep me enthusiastic. This was my first time working with circulars, DPNs or even needles that small, so it was all a bit of a learning curve. Luckily, I found them fine to work with. When the packet says sharp however, it does mean sharp. Had to make sure I didn’t poke myself too much or jab someone on the train. (Oh I wanted to!) It tended to mean that the yarn would split and I’d have to be careful not to only pick up half the stitch. I’m not sure whether this was the yarn, the needles or me, but either way it wasn’t a big problem.

I think I’ll be using this sockalong pattern for a long time yet. It’s so effective, and at the moment, still testing my brain enough for it to be enjoyable. Lacy socks are available obviously, but sometimes I think this takes away from the yarn? Is it just me? Some yarn deserves a simple pattern to show it off. Too much going on and it’ll get lost? We’ll see. It was lovely to be part of the Facebook group and wake up every morning to notifications about new sock creations. As a scared and feeble beginner, this pattern was written so well and so easy to understand. Questions were answered before I’d had chance to utter them. It’s like she knew! How amazing to have that sort of insight. Some of you may have seen that Christine herself (Yes! The actual one!) posted a comment on my Yarndale post. My teeny tiny craft blog! It felt like I’d been visited by royalty. Of course with any royal visit I then panicked about the state of the place. Anyway, I was stunned. So stunned that I got some strange looks. I got the notification on a packed commuter train. The man across the way was looking at me strangely, which is when I realised that my mouth was hanging open like a fish. How embarrassing.

So, this first (and most beloved) pair of mine was started in later April, so they’ve taken a while to be created. The first sock was finished about a month ago (read about it here) so the second sock is the much speedier brother. Like I said, it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Who could forget the ‘Inside out’ debacle?

I also had a a slight irk with gusset holes last time. (Urgh how grim does this sound?) Trying to fix this, I picked up extra stitches at the start of the gusset, but I still ended up with holes! I’m not quite sure how I managed it. Maybe it’s just a practice thing? I also had a very odd looking Kitchener stitch. I’m sorry to say that this actually got worse not better! I was finishing them on the way to Yarndale, but had only got half way through when we stopped for a break. I had to ask to be left in the car so I could finish. First I had cut my length too short, so had to spit slice on the go, (lucky I learned to Nalbind eh?) but this didn’t cause the problem. I thought I’d done what I was told, but obviously not. It just looks like mush. It’ll keep it together, but still mush. I think I need more research here. Maybe its something you need to see done? Maybe it’s all down to the work of evil pixies? It’ll remain a mystery until I finish my next pair.

On the plus side, they match!!! I switched between pretending I didn’t care about it, and doing everything I could to make sure they did. In the end I had to mess around with the yarn to make it work. The colour repeat is quite long with this yarn, but I have huge clown feet, so I just went over 1 repeat. This meant that I had to unravel another sock length before I got to the right starting point. This was fine in itself, until I ran out of yarn. From there I had to go back through the scrap and find my place. All good once it was done, but nerve racking until it came out as correct.

I’m just so happy that they fit. And I mean perfect fit. Having wide size 8s means that store bought socks are either slightly too tight, or very baggy. I’m just on the cusp. Having handmade socks isn’t just a wonderful achievement, but it means that I can make them to fit exactly. Like magic. With this in mind, should I block them? They fit like a glove. A foot glove even! They’re perfectly snug. Do I need to block them? I’d like to do everything right, but I’m not sure I can wait that long. I just want to wear them all the time.

On the flip side, I don’t want to wear them at all. They’re too precious. It’s a difficult dilemma. What if they got wet inside my leaky shoes? Or stepped in something disgusting? It would be ridiculous to frame socks, but I’m seriously tempted.

What I need is lots of them! If I have 3 weeks worth, then surely they become less precious. Diminished enough to actually be able to wear them. I think this should be my plan, mostly because I now have what can only be described as a mountain of sock yarn. Goodness I feel lucky.

So for now, I can sit in ‘for best’ socks, keep my feet toasty and plan my projects in my new sock filled world.

 

Much love xx