Mam's Socks Leftovers

After knitting the socks for Mam, I did my usual leftovers sock. This one the normal ankle sock, but I tried it toe up this time. I cast it on with a Turkish cast on, like I cast on Emma's Socks, but using a 2 mm circular needle, as I planned on using the magic loop method.

My problem was that I only had one 2 mm circular needle, and all the tutorials I could find on Turkish cast ons, did it with two circular needles. So I had fun figuring it out. I love puzzles, and this was just another - I've made a video of how I have done it, and you can find it on Youtube here, or go to Youtube and type in my name (Lottie Atkinson) to find my channel.

I'm currently still figuring out the right sock width for me with the 2 mm needle. My feet are thin, but not that thin... The pair I knitted for Mam were slightly too tight on my feet, so I increased the stitch count to 64 for this one, which has worked so much better. It's still snuggly, but not loose like my first pair at all.

For this sock I used the short row heel again, and this time it wasn't as hole-y as Emma's, and I don't really know what I did differently. I think I'm going to look into different ways to do heels to find out what I like best in terms of design, and how well I can do them!

This sock did take a tiny bit of a back seat in terms of knitting priority. I have had quite a few other things which had deadlines to make and knit before I could really spend much time on it, it got done eventually. But it was my handbag knitting, it went a lot of places with me so I could knit on it in my spare time. Including the train, I went out for a day shopping with my Mam and ended up getting a suit for an interview soon - eek! - Fingers crossed that it goes well!

Where is the weirdest place you've been knitting?

Emma's Socks

My good friend Emma asked me if I could make her a pair of socks, in the wake of me making a pair for Mr M and for Mam. Of course I said yes, and she was lovely enough to buy the yarn for me.

I wanted to try a sock in a different way to the normal, cuff down with a heel flap and gusset, that I have been making up until now. So I googled how to knit a sock toe up, because why not give it a go! In all my googling and reading I came across a website called The Spruce Crafts. It gave some general instructions on how to knit a sock toe up, including links as to how to do a turkish cast on, and a short row heel.

I did a little research into how to do turkish cast on's, as at the time I was away on holiday, sat in bed in the evening, with one set of DPNs and my yarn. Mr M got slightly irritated with the complaining of how exactly I was going to cast on, but I worked out a way! (and a video to come hopefully so - watch this space!)

Anyway the first Cast-On-Hurdle was overcome and I was back to knitting! I cast on 64 stitches for this sock, as I had made socks with that many stitches before, and they were slightly large on my feet, but Emma's feet are wider, so it was a safe bet. With these socks I mainly referred to the website for the casting on and for the heel. The rest I was fairly confident that I could work out myself. :)

Increasing for the toe was mostly the opposite of decreasing for the toe, and was fairly easy, and knitting the length of the foot was a doddle. One thing I did have to look up was how much room to leave for knitting the heel. I had measured Emma's foot before making her socks, and had an overall length I wanted them to be, but I found out when to stop on the Spruce Crafts website.

I did get rather confused knitting the heel, but following the links to a more in-depth page on the Spruce Crafts website got me through it, and there are only a few holes...

I'm really not sure why there were holes in my heel, but I think with a little more practice I can get them less saint like! (any suggestions or tips on short row heels would be greatly appreciated!)

Carrying on up the top part of the sock and to the cuff was easy too. I did the top of the sock at 13 cm long like most of my other socks, followed by a single rib cuff an inch tall.

Casting off was interesting. It was only until I came to casting off did I realise that the socks would need a stretchy cast off to be able to go around the foot when putting them on. People do tend to take socks on and off... I followed the instructions for the cast off on the Spruce Crafts website, but I didn't like the look of it, to I took it out and went on the search for another cast off that I liked better. In the end I found Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off on Knitty.com. In my opinion it looked so much better, and the step by step pictures really helped get my head around what I was meant to be doing.

The yarn used on the socks was a Regia yarn, from the Arne and Carlos Design Line in the Bramble colourway. The way it patterns really pleases me and I love them. I really do need to try their Pairfect yarn at some point though!

The socks did turn out well and they were loved from the minute Emma put them on her feet for a photo. Luckily they did fit too! I have to admit I did have a little bit of Second Sock Syndrome when making them, and the second one did not get cast on for a little while. But they got finished in the end and all was well.

May Overview

I do apologise for the lack of posting the past couple of weeks. I have been quite busy, and am trying to get back into the flow of things. So normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

I have decided to try something a little new this month, and I have created a short overview video of everything that has been going on behind the scenes last month. I realised that the weekly posts on this blog, do not represent what I have been doing in real time. Those of you who follow my instagram will see a lot more of the goings on with much more regular posts on there.

This video hopefully will be the first of many, and I have uploaded it to youtube on my channel. It would be amazing if you subscribed to the channel, and you never know, if it goes down well there could be a lot more videos going up there!

I hope you all enjoy this video, and keep posted as there will be another blog post this Sunday - I promise!!