Back to Basics

Back to Basics
I haven't really been knitting very many socks this past year. I have forgotten some things so I decided to go back to some things basic about how I knit socks that fit my feet. I learned and completed one pair of toe up socks. During making those toe up socks I learned how to do an after thought heel.

Here is my first toe up sock.

I used Bare from KnitPicks because it was left over from this project. I really didn't see any need to waste perfectly good yarn. So I did the sock class in the Bare. I think I mentioned in the post about the Vortex shawl that this kind of Bare has been discontinued. So that the finished socks extra special.

Not only are the socks above special because of the yarn and the first time method but I learned something else. I learned how to make an After Thought Heel. It seemed pretty easy until didn't pick up a stitch with the waste yarn and had to pull out several rows on both sides of the waste yarn to fix it but it did work. I can say that I have worn them about four or five times, washed them and dried them and they are still together. So I guess I did okay.

Feeling all special about making the above socks I tried my hand at some other socks that I had knit before.

What a mess! The yarn is lovely, the color is lovely but the fit, well...I don't think that went as well as I had planned. One foot is longer than the other. I love the pattern, Spring Forward. I love the texture and the lace work.
So after getting a high from the top pair, being put in my place with Spring Forward I decided to go back to basics. My very first sock was a basic rib pattern. For this next pair I did the cuff in a 2X2 ribbing and the rest of the sock in a 3X1 ribbing all the way to the toe. I used 2.75mm KnitPick dpns with 64 stitches.
The yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100g Uni/Solid. I guess I have had the yarn for a while or maybe it was given to me but I getting a color number from the label was rough. If you are a Ravelry member you can check out my project page under VAPurl. I hope the picture shows that the colors are a cream, blue/green and a navy blue with a touch of grays thrown in. I am not fond of blue but these are okay. Not so bad...for shades of blue, gray and green.

I knit basically two long ribbed tubes. At a certain point I had to use some waste yarn to hold my place to open up to insert the after thought heel. Once I did that and continued up to where the decreases were supposed to start. I got a bit nervous about how long the foot was after my last pair of socks. So the person who taught me how to do the toe ups told me to put the stitches for the heel on waste yarn and try the socks on so I could see where the decreases need to start for the toe. So here are my pics. So here is the beginning of putting the live stitches back on to the dpns and then they went on to a chibi with more waste yarn.
Here is the heel all on waste yarn and ready to try on.
Here are the socks that are just about ready for the heel and the toe. After trying them on I decided that I needed to rip the foot back about 5 rows and then will make the toe decreases. Having some basic sock knitting skills and no pattern is helping me learn more and more every time. I am getting better. What amazes me is that I still love making socks after all this time. I would give my eye teeth to attend Sock Summit in Portland, Oregon this year in July. I don't know if I could keep up but it sure would be fun to talk about socks to others who get just as excited as I do about them.
Here is the completed after thought heel. I believe I still need to tweak how many stitches I need for teh last row to kitchner. Right now it's 16 but I think I might try 20 next time. Below is the completed sock. Yeah!
So now it's on to the next pair. This pair was started in December so it's not my very first pair started and completed in 2011. The pair I am working on now will be the first pair of 2011. It's something I have knit before so stay tuned.