did i happen to mention...

sometime before christmas, while in s.f. for a work holiday luncheon, i walked to a well known knitting store to take a look see. while there i found madril's iceland washable wool in a chocolate brown, the perfect yarn to make my monk friend a scarf. while making the purchase, the woman behind the counter mentioned a newly released book which used this yarn to make a pair of men's hiking socks. my dream come true. so i purchased another ball of yarn, the book and off i went.

i cast on, using two circulars and started knitting. the ribbing was a cinch, the st st between the ribbing and the heel, no problem. the heel flap, ok. i thought to myself, this is going so quickly these socks will be ready for A2 when i see him next weekend. but then the heel turn came. a few rows into the heel turn and the instructions went a little vague. was the work to be turned or knitted till the end of the row? it wasn't stated. so i continuted knitting to the end of the row. it made the heel turn look a little odd. then i tried to p/u stitches. there were huge gaps in the knitting. this did not happen with the other sock i am knitting on size 3 needles. so i put the sock aside, missing the gifting date i had set for myself.

during the LYS holiday gathering, i brought the sock out for some suggestions. our master knitter said i had to knit back and start the whole heel flap over again. so, i un-knit it back to the start of the heel flap. started to re-knit it, but still had questions about the heel turn. took it back to the LYS at a tuesday evening gathering, where gisella, the sock guru, looked at the heel turn pattern and agreed there was something awry. she suggested the heel turn from another pattern. so i knit that instead. it looked great until i noticed that there were purl stitches on the knit side and knit stitches on the purl side. one of those knitting inside out in the round quirks. and the p/u stitches still looked a bit gappy to me. so i un-knit it again, bought an hour of gisella's time so i could re-do the heel turn and have her help me p/u the stitches for the gusset.

and it was well worth it. gisella went over the heel turn one more time; she showed me this great way to p/u stitches that produced no gaps and once again, i was off.

so here it is. my first finished sock. as i mentioned this sock is to fit a man with a size 9-12 foot so my foot doesn't quite fill the whole sock. and it is meant to be worn with boots. the yarn is quite chunky which makes it a relatively quick knit (i'll see if that prediction holds true while knitting the second sock!), and it is knitted with one size smaller of a needle then is called for on the yarn label. but it feels heavy and warm. and i am so very excited about finishing a sock! socks are what i have always wanted to knit. and now i have! yay! so on to the second one!