D'NALI

 … and I did with great results.  😀

For the last year, I’ve been trying to knit socks.  I tried it with dpns; I felt as if I was fighting with a porcupine.  Plus the ladders were as wide as a tightrope so that method was just not cutting it.  Then I tried magic loop.  Honestly, some days, magic loop worked for me, other days… I have no idea what the heck happened.  😳  But even with those dismal attempts, that didn’t stop me from wanting to make socks!

When I was asked about knitting socks, I typically responded: “my name is Nicky, and I’ve NEVER knit a sock.  That doesn’t stop me from buying sock yarn or saving sock patterns or reading sock books.”  For the last 6 months, a couple of times per week, this was my bedtime reading:

I’d drool over the patterns, try to work out the popular techniques (dpns & magic loop) but my progress was not consistent enough for me to actually start making socks.  😦  After a while, I was beginning to think that I was slow!  😛  I just couldn’t understand how these techniques connected well for other knitters but not for me.  But I’ve since learned that everything is not for everyone and  I just needed to persevere and find what works for me.

One day I was going through “Getting Started Making Socks” by Ann Budd.  This was gifted to me in one of the first swaps I ever participated in on Ravelry .  The index card my swap partner attached to that gift fell out and it reminded me that she knit socks with a 9 inch circular needle.  Of course that had me scouring the internet, Ravelry and Youtube.  From each source, I got invaluable resources; this post by Kara of Rockin’ Granola and these videos from Pat Springer (now dubbed Sock Knitting Rockstar by me 😀 ), pushed me over the 9 inch edge and sock knitting became a real possibility for me.  Then I thought of all the other fun stuff I could do with these small diameter needles — fingerless mittens, sleeves — woooooooooooooo weeeeeee!!! 😀

I ordered some 9 inch Chiaogoo needles from Handsome Fibers and some Hiya Hiyas from Pat (which the post office claims they delivered but I haven’t gotten mail for the last four days and they don’t know what happened to the packet … ughhh 🙄 ).  Since the Chiaogoos got to me in three days, I was ready to start.  😀

I’m not going to lie, it took a little practice to get use to the diameter of the 9 inch needles but once I loosened the death grip that I typically have on my needles, I was off and flying!  😀    And before long … I had this:

the beginning of my first pair of socks.  😀  Right now, I’m following Pat’s videos and doing a basic, vanilla pattern.  I figure I’d get myself familiarized with sock construction and knitting before I begin busting out the patterns from my other sock books.  Since there’s not much out there on knitting socks with such small needles, I know I’ll have to make some adjustments when knitting other patterns, since they are not customised for these needles.  But I don’t care … I’m just glad that I can actually do this!!!

This week got even better craft-wise:

I got my new W.I.P basket  (just beeeyoutiful  :D),  bought cheapo placemats from Ikea and made sock blockers using this tutorial (ain’t they pretty 😀 ), tried on my sock on my home-made sock blocker, and got yarn I ordered two weeks ago to make Andi Satterlund’s Miette to replace my VS cropped sweater that had bitten the dust.   Some Berroco Lustra; just lovely!   (Don’t even ask about coldsheeping — I restarted that as at June 25th  😛 )  Couldn’t ask for a better week craft wise.

Moral of the story: if at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again, you can dust it off  and try again.  Thanks Aaliyah!!!