I finally faced my sock knitting fears! I looked those strange heel flaps and gussets in the eye and said you’ll not stop me from living my sock knitting dreams!

Ok, that might be a bit of an overstatement but I definitely felt it on the inside!

Socks have always been one of those things that I love the idea of knitting but when I actually look at a pattern I automatically think that it’s way too complicated and I push the project aside. After my recent knitting successes, I thought I was finally skilled up enough to have a proper go!

I took to Instagram to figure out what pattern to start with and opted for the free pattern called “Hermione’s Everyday Socks”. It’s a top down knit with a textured pattern and a traditional heel flap. I was always afraid of the picking up stitches part and making everything neat and even, but it worked out better than I had expected! I thought the instructions were pretty good – or at least they suited my style of learning!

I made my first pair in some self striping Stylecraft sock yarn from Wool Warehouse. I wanted them to be a fun colour hence why I picked the stripey stuff! I knitted it up on 2.5mm long circular needles using the magic circle method and switching to a pair of double pointed needles for the heel flap and turn. I think my gauge may have been very slightly off (too big) qbut the socks still fitted well!

What I didn’t realise when I started the sock is that I would have no idea how the stripes would look and how that would affect the sock! The stripes were coming out in big enough blocks that when I got to the second sock I couldn’t just pick up the yarn straight away as I would’ve been left with two unmatching socks! I followed my instincts and unravelled the yarn to the point where I thought it matched my starting point – about halfway I think. It took me a few goes but I somehow ended up at a point very similar to my first sock. I think it was a row out in the end but not enough to be visually much different!

After this first success I moved on to my “proper” yarn – this gorgeous Nellie and Eve yarn in Meadow that I’d been gifted earlier in the summer. From the start I’d planned to use it for socks but was too scared to go straight into it for my trial pair!

I decided to change the pattern slightly this time though!

I used an eyelet pattern instead of the original texture. It still kept to the same number of stitches so I didn’t have to change anything else!

Pattern:

• Row 1-3: knit
• Row 4: *k2tog, yarn over, knit two* repeat
• Row 5-7: knit
• Row 8: *knit two, k2tog, yarn over* repeat

I made the leg of the sock much shorter than the original pattern called for too as I found that my wide calves made my first pair quite tight the higher up they went and they didn’t stay up so well.

Hand knitted socks are thick and chunky and warm and snuggly. They’re great for boots and as slipper socks around the house but are otherwise probably not the most practical!

Now I’ve made them though, I feel like I can knit anything!!!