it aint nothin' but a sock thang, baby! aka- i'm an OG of sock knitting!

i was so jealous when i first started knitting of people who could knit socks, and this before i knew there was an ENTIRE sock knitting movement!!! i had never seen ANYONE knit on dpns, but i heard they were not for the intrepid knitter, and they were semi-hard to master. so i pined away longing for the day i could learn, until one day i decided to look it up online. i felt like i was looking up knitting porn!!! i found a tutorial through google *wish i could remember where it was, but this was a couple of years ago!* that explained it, and then at the bottom there was pictures!! upon laying my eyes on those pictures i gave up hope! i thought there was no way i could do it without years more experience! the printed-off pages sat in my knitting note book for a while, when one day i decided to just do it. *this is a theme in my crafting life, i force myself to do something i thought i never could, and sometimes it actually turns out ok, other times, i end up with yarn/fiber everywhere, sitting in a pile around me, exasperated* all i can say, is this must have been god's gift to knitters! whoever wrote this tutorial did in such a way that it was actually understandable!!! and the pictures!! i don't think i could have done it without the pictures! before i had seen them, thinking to myself "knitting with 4/5 DOUBLE ENDED (!) knitting needles at ONE TIME!!!" who tortures themselves that much? but when i saw the dpns with knitting on them, held together all in a neat little square, it clicked, and it seemed so easy! the concept all the sudden made sense! and after my first pair of successful socks, i was hooked like morphine in my IV.... it was life changing!

amongst many other things going on right now, i'm steadily working on kyndra's socks, although they have become such a pain in the arse and i haven't even finished the second sock yet! oy- how frustrating. there have been many bad sizing issues. i think what's happened *although, of course, i didn't figure this out until probably half way through* was that because the patterns i was pulling elements from all adult patterns and then plugging in my gauge instead, the instructions for "knit until piece measure measures two inches less than desired..." were shorter than two inches, because instead of decreasing a ton of stitches, i have only 28 in the entire sock, so it was many less rounds, making my elements about an inch, instead 2 to 2 and a half inches. so now at least i know why i frogged probably 5 socks now that were way too short for her, and now that i know, i can fix it! ;) for this reason i wish they were toe up, so i could try them on her much easier, and then i wouldn't have any length issues to begin with... oh well! i've learned my lesson, as soon as i get my transfer from my paypal i'm ordering the book sensational knitted socks! i'm really excited, from what i've read it's supposed to be, like, the best and only sock book you'll ever need! it's sort of like the twisted sister's sock workbook, except for the fact that it DOES actually give you sock recipes where you can alter the pattern to your heart's desire (see the previous post), and tons of stitch patterns to customize the look! i can't wait! i hope it's as good as it sounds! i did debate getting the sequel book (MORE sensational knitted socks... DUH!!) because it says it gives instructions for 4 and 5 dpns, magic loop sock method, toe up and cuff down, for ALL the patterns, where number one doesn't, plus OODLES more stitch patterns to complement the first. but i figure, if i like the first one that much, i'll get the second one later!