Welp, this is me jumping into the deep end again. And I am so excited about it. I taught myself how to knit, purl, M1L and M1R, and K2T (I think that’s the abbreviation for knit 2 together to decrease), and now I think I’m ready for socks (the whole reason I’m learning to knit now).

This is going to be… interesting.

Jan 16: my socks have toes!!! I tried them over my feet and they feet fine, so I’m done the increase rounds. Off to countless rounds of straight knit stitch. Woo!

Jan 21: Getting into the straight knit rounds. I thought I’d be bored by now. Nope. Not yet anyhow. Still having a blast. I can start to see where the benefit of DPNs comes in though every time I need to move the yarn onto a needs or around the cable. Not annoying or anything but takes a moment. And those moments add up. It’s more time I could just be knitting!

Jan 28: Round and round and round and round. Still not bored. I’m going to have to start the short row heel at some point this week and I am sort of intimidated by this. I mean, slipping stitches? Knitting in both directions? Alien!

Feb 6: I have turned a heel! I am using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel, and it was really straightforward! Mush easier than I imagined it would be. Now I have to turn the other one and then back to the rows of stockinette.

Feb 7: I did the second heel! Woo! Way quicker than I expected. And I didn’t really have to refer to the instructions. Very easy to memorize.

Feb 11: The heels came out great! I’ve well into the top part of the sock now and just going in circles again! Still loving this, still relaxing. I predict another week and a half or so.

Feb 24: You can make out the shape of the sock now! I’m at the point where I’m trying to dsecide when to start the cuff. I don’t have enough yarn to make very large socks here, so it’s more a case of where I want the cuff to sit on the ankle. I’m thinking another half inch of stockinette, then a 2x2 cuff I think.

Mar 07: And Done!!! So there are a couple of nitpicks here:

• I’m not sure if it’s too dense or not. I mean, the weave is significantly looser on my other pair of knit socks, but that will just mean these are warmer I guess. But do I want a looser weave in the next pair? I dunno.

• The cuff is way too loose. I mean, it stays up, but that’s mostly the denseness and the shotness of the leg portion. I may need to decrease imediately after the heel as my ankle narrows dramatically compared to my foot. Again, I’m not sure. I’ll have to talk this over with my knitting group.

• This pair took me 2 months. I have 6 close family members (and 2-3 people that aren’t family but may as well be). There is no way I can get every person a pair of socks for Christmas. I will have to explore other options.

• The Knit Picks Stroll tonal yarn worked up rather well. It was rather splitty a lot of the time, but the colours make up for it I think, and it wasn’t too bad in stockinette.