Hot off the needles.

Another pair of warm wooly socks are hot off the needles.  They are for my collection of custom fitted socks.  Yeah, I am guilty of  tinkering with the numbers to get a sock that fits just right.

This is a color way called Steam Punk.  I like the crazy way the spirals work down the ankles.  Now when I purchase store bought socks I would NEVER, never buy anything flashy or outlandish. But, when I knit every stitch with care and mark off each  row on a scratch sheet, outlandish is OK.  (As long as it’s not neon)

Yeah I am a nerd.  I knit and mark my rows.  Its not that I can’t memorize the pattern, its that I forget what row I am on.  If its a 2 row pattern that is OK.  But if its a 4 row pattern, I prefer to keep a chart.  Same with toe decreases.  I make a chart similar to the above and mark off in pen or pencil depending on which sock I am on.  One advantage is that I do get 2 socks exactly alike.  I knit in bits of time.  Where ever there is 10 minutes I pull out my needles, take a peak at the chart and bang out a few rows.  The only time I do not do that is late at night.  Nope!  No knitting when I am fatigued.

I am a cuff down, two at a time, DPN sock knitter.  It works for me.  There are lots of ways to knit socks and since there are no sock knitting police I feel that each to his own.  This way pleases me.  So I prefer the K1 into the back of the stitch, P1 cuff ribbing.  I am unable to cast on loosely, so I cast on over 2 needles held together.  This gives one a very loose cast on and the twisted rib holds up nicely after blocking.

I like the Eye of Partridge heel better than the Dutch heel.

I like 3 stitches past the center when turning the heel,  I like the precision when picking up the gusset of the twisted stitch again.

I abhor the second sock syndrome.  So I knit cuff, cuff.  Ankle, ankle. Heel flap, heel flap. turn the heel, turn the heel.  It is at this time I pick up exactly the same number of stitches for each sock on each side of the gusset.  It really does not matter if each side has exactly the same number of picked up stitches but it matters to me.  So I am careful to pick up both of these at the same time.  Then it is time to knit the gusset decreases on both socks and its a race to the toes.  I used to like the 4,3,2,1 toe but have changed to the knit and decrease every other row till I had 16 stitches across the top needle, followed by decreasing every row until I have 8 across the top.  A quick kitchener stitch and voila!  Done.

Last, I like my socks blocked.  So I wash and block the socks before I wear them.  Just another luxury thing about hand knit socks.

So what is on the needles next?

Something more sedate than the above pair.  The cast on has begun!