Grandma and her socks

My grandmother used to knit socks for all her children and grandchildren. Every Christmas we would get a package containing one pair of wool socks for each of us and a box of chocolate. I still have all the socks she gave me and I love them. I wear grandma's socks every night when I sleep, and whenever my feet get cold during the day.

When grandma died in 2010, they found a lot of finished pairs of socks when they emptied her house. These were carefully divided among us. We still have a plastic bag full of socks stashed away at mom's place. But the truth is painfully clear: this stash of socks is finite and grandma will not make more socks for us.

So one of my goals since I started knitting again has been to learn to knit socks. I regret not getting the opportunity to learn from grandma. But I still feel it would be nice to carry on her legacy.

When Garnstudio had their spring wool sale this year, and sold sock yarns 35% off, I decided to have a go, and bought three different colours of their 75% wool, 25% polyamide Fabel sock yarn. They are all printed yarns with automatic patterning.

I decided to make my first pair of socks for my three-year-old nephew. I wanted to make a smaller size first, just to see how hard it was and if I liked it. Since I mainly knit for pleasure, I don't want to commit to projects that aren't fun. And it was lots of fun. I especially enjoyed the element of surprise in using a printed yarn. It felt almost magical to see the pattern growing all by itself.

 

The only thing I didn't really like was the way the bamboo double pointed needles felt. They were a bit too sticky. I'm used to the smoother feeling of the circular birchwood needles I normally use. I was also intrigued by some videos I had seen of knitting two socks at once using magic loop on circular needles. So I went online and bought two birchwood circular needles, size 2.0 mm and 2.5 mm. 

Yesterday my eagerly awaited needles arrived in the mail. But to my chagrin I realized that I had ordered the wrong size cable for the 2.5 mm needle. I wanted 100 cm long needles, but the 2.5 mm needle was only 40 cm — far too short to do magic loop. All the patterns I had found were for 2.5 mm needles, and really didn't want to wait for another online order to arrive. 

So I decided to wing it and knit a pair of socks for myself without a pattern. I decided to knit them toe up, so that I can try them on as I go. I also find it appealing to be able to use up all the yarn. When you knit toe up, you can just go on knitting until you run out of yarn.

I found this really nice instruction for knitting a rounded toe. Grandma's socks always had rounded toes, so to me that is the right way to do it. I just didnt really like the cast-on method they used. It was just too fiddly for the tiny needles I was using. So instead I did a Turkish cast-on. Then I found this generic pattern for toe-up socks two at a time, which I plan to use to turn the heel. 

I already finished the toes, and I'm really pleased with the way the pattern synchronized across the two skeins of yarn. I don't know if it is a coincidence or if the skeins are planned this way. But I really like the result so far. I plan to keep the notes for this project on ravelry up to date, so that I get a repeatable pattern when I'm done.