Breaking the one sock syndrome

Okay I admit, for years the whole sock thing has totally defeated me. I've tried and tried to knit socks. There's the green socks for Daughter No. 2 and the blue socks for the ex....... Got one of each plus one lovely blue and tweed slipper somewhere in my WIP's. But not two.

It's hard knitting socks. There's all these peculiar instructions and they keep talking about turning the heel and heel flaps. Weird stuff, not very intelligble to this crocheter. But then ..........

My spinning buddy, Ruth, turned up with this fantastic book! Crochet patterns for socks. It's great and it has heaps of ideas around two basic patterns one for 5ply or sport weight and one for worsted weight. It also has a very nice lace pattern. The book is called Learn to Crochet Socks by Kathy Wesley. It is American and uses their terminology but it doesn't assume any knowledge and includes instructions.

I made the basic sport sock pattern and it was sooooooo easy. This is the yarn is used.


The apricot yarn is left over from a baby jumper and is Patons Big Baby.
The multi coloured yarn came from my raid, I mean, shopping excursion, at First Editions in Euroa.



The first half of the first sock seemed to take forever because the yarn is a little finer than sport weight so I had to do extra rows. The band is crocheted sideways, going into the back loop of the stitch which creates a lovely ribbed effect.



The multi coloured yarn is actually a sock yarn and it has a lovely spongy feel - probably from the nylon in it. It bought an extra 100 grams of this undyed and next guild meeting I'll having a go at doing self striping yarn - like the lovely Opal sock yarn in my stash on Ravelry.

Once I got on the heel shaping on the socks, it was easy peasy. Okay, I did have to frog it once. The extra rows didn't match the pattern, but it was easy to fix. I just needed to see it first to work it out. Here are my finished socks. I really like the way the multicoloured wool pools the colours. It creates random patterns, nice serendipity!



They fit really well, and I have long queue of people wanting a pair. Sister Jay gave me money for birthday fibre at First Editions, so she's first cab off the rank! I finished spinning the yarn for her socks today and will post pics and a new post when it's dry.

Suzie moves in.

WoooHoooo. I've finally bought my new wheel and she is beautiful! Her name is Suzieb and she is a Majacraft Suzie Professional. I also bought a wild flyer kit and head and ordered a lace kit. I've been very flat out and haven't had as much time to spin as I would have liked but I've spun some very fine possum and merino, some fine merino, a medium yarn and I finished the spinning the yarn for a new pair of socks last night. It still has to be plyed - I think I want to Navaho Ply it. Will do a trial tonight to see if it will be fine enough.
The top picture is Suzie set up and ready to go. This picture is Suzieb folded up ready for a car trip.