{WIP} My Heel is Turned

A little while ago I was chatting with a knitter friend from college on facebook and mentioned that I want to start making socks but the whole heel thing confused me.  Earlier last week she asked me if I was free this past weekend and we made a plan to get together at my place.  

That was a Wednesday, and I had a whole lot of pre-sock knitting to do! I had to do some deep stash diving but finally found two skeins of sock yarn I would be willing to use for my practice socks that I had purchased at the Web's tent sale a couple of years ago (point 1 for Amy using stash!). This is my first time knitting with Classic Elite yarns, and my impressions on Summer sox are not great - it is about equal parts marino and cotton with a small amount of nylon mixed in but there is no give to the yarn, and I don't find it to be very elastic.  

Cuff and SSS bag

I then found an easy enough pattern on Ravelry - The Step-by-Step Cheat Sheet for Socks by the amazing Yarn Harlot herself Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It matched up with the basic instructions Siobhan gave me - CO 64 stitches for a gauge of 7.5 inches to the inch.  I didn't have any US 1.5 needles, so I went to a size 2 and was getting the correct gauge but the ankle was looking pretty loose (my mom has bigger ankles and feet than me, so congrats mom! You will be getting a pair of socks!) so I think I might need to buy a 1.5 needle for future socks.  Both the pattern and Sio said to knit the ankle for about 7 inches...well, by the time Saturday rolled around I only had a bout 4.5 inches knit.  Short sock it is! 

A heel! A real heel!

After chatting about life post college and knitting and oohing over socks of hers she brought the knitting lesson begun.  Sio had brought a sock pattern book with her and asked what type of heel I wanted to learn.  Now, I had a basic knowledge of socks as I have been looking through patterns for two years now.  I knew there was something called a gusset heel, an after thought heel, and a heel flap.  But as to how those actually translate? No clue.  So Sio narrowed it down to a flap heel and a short row heel for me and asked which one I wanted to learn. She showed me the flap heel on her socks and mentioned that they were not her personal favorite as she didn't like how the heel turned out. She also mentioned they involved picking up stitches and I pretty much was like, "Picking up stitches? Tell me more about this short row heel..." because we all know my love for picking up stitches is non-existent. So a short row heel is what I learned for my first ever heel and you know what? It was EASY.  AS. PIE.  And so cool to see my heel actually form as I was knitting.  Not only was this my first time turning a heel, but it was my first time doing short rows on a purl side and doing double wraps. Siobhan was a great, patient teacher.

Now I am working my way to the toesies and realizing I am going to have to repeat the whole process for the second one but I am definitely impressed with the fact that I am making an article of clothing that fits and looks like a real sock and yeah....I might have started queuing sock patterns and looking at self striping yarn and other fun things.  So many of my ravelry friends seem to have a knitting pattern in their mind for basic socks and I want to get there.  I also want to learn to knit them toe up. And two at a time. But first let me finish my first beginner sock.

Are you impressed? Cause I sure am

 Today is also my birthday. I have entered the last year of my 20s.  So Happy Birthday to me! As a present to myself I purchased the Doctor Who Bag of the Month club over at Slipped Stitch Studios.  Membership ends today, so Whovians go support a small business AND get an amazing, amazing project bag :)