My adventure with The Simplest Socks in the World

Charmed as I was by knitting, I got very interested on a subject: socks. Reading the messages in the Crazy Knitting Ladies group, surfing the web and all, I decided I wanted to learn how they were made. I started by sending a message to the group, and the girls immediately encouraged me to started a pair at once, instead of keep trying to understand how they were made. And they pointed me the pattern for The Simplest Socks in the World, which is available at Tricoteiras.com and also at Ravelry.

Everything really got started when my friend L. lent me her set of double pointed needles and even gave me a ball of Bambino as a gift. With all that encouragement, there I went to start knitting. Right from the start, I found it easy to cast on and divide the points by four. But I didn't find it easy to unite the last stitch to the end, closing the circle. It took me a while until I managed it, knitting a stitch over the other, afraid that everything would fall apart. It doesn't, ok? You just need to keep knitting, the second row will hold everything together. Just hold tight the thread/yarn so it won't leave a space. (Yesterday I watched a video from Superziper, which teaches how to knit in circular needles. The trick it shows seems perfect to finish the first row of the socks!).

Something interesting is that right in the beginning I was confused and, when I got to the end of the first row, I started purling the wrong side, going back. It was when I found out that it was circular knitting, and in it you always work the right side - except for the heel, if you're knitting socks. You don't need to be a genius to find that out - but if I hadn't tried, I wouldn't have made that mistake and wouldn't have learned. Today is obvious day, isn't it? ;-)

Following the pattern, the sock starts by the cuff, with 10 rows in 1 knit, 1 purl. After that you enter auto mode, knitting several rows all in knit stitch, until you get to the heel. I've made 40 rows.

The heel is no problem in the first part - as the pattern says, "(...) work with 26 stitches leaving the other 26 on hold. Every two rows leave one stitch on each side on hold. Repeat 8 times". That's what I did, no problem. But when I started going back, I realized I left holes. I tried to close them in many ways, and each foot came out differently. The first one came out better, contradicting my idea that the more I make, the better results I get. But the next pair of socks will definitely be better.

I got little lumps where the rows joined back together. The first sock came out more uniform, but with bigger holes. Heels are not simple, definitely. But that doesn't stop me from knitting socks, no way!


And that's been my adventure. :) I finished it with great joy, having learned a lot about knitting and myself. And also as someone addicted to socks!