If The Sock Fits...Knit Another One!

I was pretty sure all the way through this sock, that I would be searching for a person with ONE very slim, long foot, to wear it. In the end though, it fits so well that I can't believe it. So I have started on its pair straight away.
I have been so enthralled with it that even though there have been some mini-disasters along the way, I have been searching for sock wool to dye at home so that I can make some unique ones. I shall stick to 4ply. The Patonyle was really good to work with although it has a tendency to split up as you knit it and it's so smooth, dropped stitches ladder right down very easily. The LYS has a few shades to choose from but dyeing will be more fun. I tried Spotlight in Geelong, yesterday, but they don't seem to do sock wool, only baby-wear 4ply. Couldn't ask the assistant. She was busy on her mobile!

Anyway, for any other beginners out there, here's a list of the things I found I should have known before I started

1) Research a few patterns and read a manual or two. eg Creative Knitting (OZ) Issue 4 for 8ply/double knitting and Knitting Pattern for Basic Socks for a 4ply/sockwool thickness. http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/socksbasic.htm This helps you to get used to the terminology.

2) Don't bother with a fancy cast-on if you've never done one before. I used the cast-on my mother taught me when I was five, but I thought it would be nice to have a tubular cast on like in Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook but I wasted a day trying it and some other easier looking ones. Just make sure it's not too tight and will constrict blood flow!

3) Use a straight needle to cast on and then transfer the stitches to the dpns on the first row taking care not to twist them.

4) I followed the diagram in Standfield and Griffiths' Encyclopedia of Knitting, which shows the knitting coming up through the needles like a crown as you knit and each time you put an empty needle on the last needle is above it and the third needle is below it. That really helped because I was all needles and not much knitting for quite a while.

5) Each time you join a new needle, keep the first AND the second stitch tight a la EZ. Take care, when you select a needle from all those clasped in your left hand for the next section of knitting, that it is the one with NO stitches on it!

6) If a stitch drops (never blame yourself, stitches on dpns have a mind of their own) try a fine crochet hook but after a couple of hours, give up and frog below the dropped-stitch-round and try to pick them up again.



The second sock is on the needles now and I suppose the proof of the pudding is in the completion date of the entire PAIR of socks not just a stitch perfect first one.

OK, I'm not perfect so please tell me what I can do to get rid of the gaping holes at each ankle?

Going to make some more efforts on the blog site soon, Thanks to all for great advice, Cheers Gillian