My First Sock

I do like me a new challenge, and with the weather soon to be going cold I decided I wanted to learn how to loom knit socks. Some snugly warm socks, made with some of the beautiful hand dyed yarn that melts my heart on Etsy. 

The first challenge was buying a fine gauge sock loom. I found an amassing one on Etsy, but it was made in america and the shipping was almost as much as the loom, and I couldn't bring my self to spent over £60 on a loom. I had to make do instead with a more commercial one I found on Ebay. 

Part of my difficulty in finding a loom is that I wanted a wood and metal one, most looms are plastic and I am trying to avoid buying plastic where possible. Sadly there where no hand made one on Etsy that where made in the UK or even Europe. 

But when it arrived I excitedly began my first ever sock. I used a Kitchener cast on which pre-loads the pegs with the threads to close the toe. It turned out really well, watching it slowly emerge from the loom was so fun. 

Along with the hand dyed yarn I bought from Etsy I also bought 2 balls of a cheaper yarn to practice with. The yarn in the pictures was was the scratchier one, so it would be used mostly for learning.

I liked the toe up patterns more, so that is what I used. The pattern actually starts at the foot end of the toe (as apposed to the nail end) works out over the toe and then back. The Kitchener cast on means that when you start working the foot (between the toe and heal) you pick up loops you need to be able to almost drawstring the opening closed.

My toe turned out really neat, I'm supper happy with it. The heal on the other hand I dropped a stitch.

See that hole with 2 loops held together by a stitch marker, that is my dropped stitch.  

Overall I am pleased with my first sock. Things I learnt

1) I need to use more pegs. I only used 44 and the resulting sock was tight across the top of my foot. Increase from 44 pegs to 52. Will add just over an inch (7 stitches per inch)

2) The calculations for the foot length was just right. Will need to recalculate because using more pegs means more rows on the toe and heal sections. 

3) The lift and wrap without lifting. Lifting one loop to wrap and turn is ok, but when you have multiple loops it gets a bit more challenging. I worked our a way of wrapping without lifting, I have no idea what its called though. If you start like you mean to purl (pulling new loop up from below the stitch on the peg) but instead of pulling the old loop/stitch off, push the new loop back and pull the working yarn till it comes out from behind the peg and below the work. 

4) Flat knits are faster but if your working with more than one loop on the peg its safer to do a full knit, that way you can't drop a stitch. 

5) Marking the last stitches of the decrease with a little bit of washi helps keep track. 

6) Keep a piece of paper handy to tally off the rows as you finish to make sure you get 2 socks the same. 

Socks are fun and I am looking froward to making some proper ones.