First Socks
As promised last time, here are FO pics of my first pair of socks completed this past spring when blogging was pretty nonexistent.


Springwater Socks
Pattern: a combination of online toe-up patterns including Wendy's and Kim's and the leg pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks (Baby Cable Rib)
Yarn: Springwater hand-dyed Gems Merino
Needles: Bryspun Size 3 DP's and Addi Turbo Size 3's
For: Me
Started: September 24, 2005
Finished: April 2006
I won this kit from Suzie as a prize in the Hurricane Katrina Give a Little giveaways last fall, and you can see pictures of it here (scroll down to September 22). The Gems Merino they included in the kit was great first sock yarn as it is heavier than traditional sock weight yarn.
I started the socks toe-up on 1 size 3 addi circular. My original thoughts back then were "Although I can do dpns, I don't like them very much b/c I tend to get ladders and I find them kind of fiddly." I also wanted to try just 1 circ,
especially since I didn't have any circs smaller than 4's, so I preferred to only have to buy 1 until I decided if I liked socks. (I have since purchased several sets of DPNS trying to find the best ones for socks).
I used the figure 8 cast-on and didn't find it to be very difficult at all. I actually cast on on dpns and used them for about 2 rows and then switched to the circular. I cast-on 8 stitches using figure 8, increased 4 times every other row to 52 stitches using M1. Used this pattern by Kim.
Once done the toe, I stopped working on the first sock, put it on some spare needles, and cast on for the second. Once I got the second to the same point as the first, I put them both on the needles and continued on. The one thing I did differently on the second toe was to do mirrored increases instead of M1 on each side. The reverse of the M1 was a big pain, and I didn't really like the shape of the toe any better.
I did a short-row heel and then started the leg patterning. By this point, I didn't really like the magic loop method very much - especially when having to knit and purl. So, I switched to double points and did each leg separately. It was easy to make them match since the leg pattern had a 4 row repeat so I could easily count it.
Overall, I am very happy with the socks. They are quite comfy - a little too thick for much other than wearing around the house. Perhaps I might be able to wear them with shoes in the winter - we'll see. I have acquired quite a bit of sock yarn in the last few months - so this is definitely the first on many pairs. Next up - purple trekking socks!

