I was terrified! Each year I view those pretty sock patterns and Youtube videos and as soon as they get to wrapping and what not around the heel, I tune it out. Then I discovered two things:

1. The toe-up sock
2. The heel flap without wrapping and turning the short rows

And I said to myself….BRILLIANT!

So all month long I have been exploring and breaking down sock knitting into its basic elements, redefining and improving all for the newbies to socks. I have made two pairs now and like other sock knitters have said:

1. Its so relaxing
2. It’s very addictive

KNITTING TWO SOCKS AT A TIME

Once you master the fear of trying something new in knitting, sock knitting can be very easy and the time goes by fast. The first sock I did 2 socks on 1 circular in the magic loop method. It was surprising easy. I have small kids and I was afraid that using my DPNs while learning socks would be tuff. I have a 2 year old who loves to pull the needles out of my work in progress….so magic loop was great. I also learned this method because it was the “hardest” and I knew that if I could master two at a tim, then doing one sock would be easy. Plus, people tell me that sometimes they knit one sock and then do not want to finish the second one (sock syndrome).

I also learned the method of knitting two socks in one, an old English tradition of using DPNs and knitting as if you are double knitting but you have one sock inside of the other. One is knit and the other is purl- with the yarn never crossing. That was great and the time went by fast!

Cuff down socks vs. Toe up socks

I enjoyed doing both. I think I like the cuff down more, even though I did the toe up first. We will see how I feel after making more socks. So far I have made 3 pairs using all the methods above. I will post photos of them as I go and post my super easy sock pattern that I found to be the best and easiest way of doing the heel flap and gusset, along with Youtube videos of some of my favorite teachers.

UPDATE: Here is a photo of my socks I made 2 at a time.

-Keturah Ariel