My first pair of socks

This is my first-ever completed pair of socks. (Note that I didn’t say first-ever started pair of socks.)

Straight-Laced from knitty (of course!) in Knitpicks Memories Rocky Mountain Dusk. I started them about a month ago, but I have certainly not been monogamous.

As I’ve said before, I had a blast with these. I felt totally free to explore new techniques, and maybe mess up, because hey, they’re just socks! I have knit a ton of sweaters, and I didn’t “get” socks, but now I can see the fun. I got frustrated with juggling the two circulars, so I did them both on one needle with Magic Loop. Magic Loop is great! There is pretty significant pooling, and the one on the left above is quite a bit darker, but I don’t really care. I love wacky socks, and these are MY wacky socks.

Also, I absolutely DO NOT believe that Straight-laced is extraspicy. It just wasn’t that hard at all, and I can’t imagine that it is harder than, say, Hedera.

I know that there are many more socks in my future, so I have a question for my sock-knitting friends. I have big feet (US 10-10.5) and I feel like the heel on this sock isn’t really wide enough for my foot. The “seam” where I knit stitches together while turning the heel is on the bottom of my heel, and I am afraid that it might get annoying to step on it. Next time, should I knit across more stitches before turning so the “seam” ends up more at the side? Or should I just try a short-row heel?

Straight-Laced

It had been hot here. Incredibly, ludicrously hot. I simply cannot work on any of my thick wool WIPs under these conditions. And besides, I have a new love in my life right now.

These are Straight-Laced from Knitty, in Knitpicks Sock Memories, Rocky Mountain Dusk. Despite their extraspicy rating, I cast on for them last night, never having completed a pair of socks in my life. It is so… freeing to begin a project ready and willing to learn, and to make mistakes in the process. The yarn cost under $10, and they’re SOCKS fer crying out loud! They can have mistakes in them, no one will look closely. In fact, there is already a pretty major mistake in there, but I don’t care. ONWARD!

I’ve been fighting a bit with the yarnovers on either side of the two knit stitches in the lace pattern. As you can see, the loops on the right are smaller than the loops on the left.

I’m pretty sure it’s because the instructions are to knit two together on both the left and the right side. In the picture below, don’t the stitches to the right of the smaller hole look twisted? I think the K2Ts on the right are constricting the yarnovers. I’ll try doing SSK for a few rounds to see if that helps at all.