My First Socks!

I've read so much about how wonderful hand knit socks are.  But they scare me a bit - all those double pointed needles forming a tube sounds terribly confusing.  And there are always so many other projects at the top of my list that I haven't been saddened by my lack of hand knit socks.  But then two things happened.

1.  I had lots of 8 ply yarn leftover from my husband's stripey jumper; and
2.  I found instructions for socks knit on straight needles.

So we adapted the stitch count from a 10 ply pattern to fit the 8 ply yarn and I knit forth.  Unfortunately changing yarn and increasing a pattern's size at the same time involves a lot of maths.  Although we are both good with numbers, knitting is in a world of its own and halfway through the first sock we realised that we hadn't increased the sock size enough to fit my husband's Australian shoe size 13 foot (European shoe size 48).  But with a bit of late jiggling it fit me (size 6.5/37). 

The only downside of knitting socks on straight needles is the seaming.  I don't mind the side seam, but the toe seam feels a bit bulky.  But the socks are toasty warm and rather unique - since I'm using leftover yarn, one sock is all grey, while the other is half grey and half blue!

We did some more maths and I've cast on a sock for my husband now - hopefully with enough stitches!!

The socks are Erika Knight's 'Slouch Socks' (from a book I borrowed from the A.C.T. library).  Oh, and I've finally done something with my Ravelry account, so if you are on there you can find me under my user name of 'TansyMagic'.