Tip toes

Am I still in time to wish everybody a happy new year? I’m sorry I didn’t post my best wishes for everyone any sooner, but it’s been a very busy time.

Now, these socks have been finished for a couple of weeks now. Just like my new year’s wished, I should have posted these toe socks earlier already, but I just couldn’t find time enough to actually post. But here they finally are!

I think they look pretty neat. And it doesn’t show at all that (ahem) that one is shorter than the other, right?

What I liked

By using this pattern I learned how to do a Turkish cast-on. Since I needed it to start every toe, it was a great opportunity to practise it. And now I’m a fan. A tutorial is coming! I’d say soon, and I’ll really try to make it soon, but I’m also going to stop making promises. It’s coming. Eventually.
This pair of socks was the first pair that I did from the toe up. And yes, I’m a fan of this method as well. I think these Turkish cast-ons and the toe-up method turned me into a sock-knitting addict. I mean, the reason why I didn’t have time to post was, among others, was that I had a pair of birthday socks to finish. And now that those are done as well, I can’t wait to start yet another pair.
These socks knitted up fairly quickly. At first I thought they would take me forever, what with all the toes that needed to be done separately and then needed to be joined. But the pattern is very straight-forward and fairly easy, so it went a lot faster than I had thought.
I got this pattern from Debbie Stoller’s Superstar knitting, but it’s also available on Ravelry, for free. Just follow the button at the bottom of this post.

Rough patches

I did some miscalculations on this one. The pattern is for a medium sized foot, and my feet are slightly larger than average. So I measured that I needed to add an inch and added some rows, but apparently not enough of them. So, for my first sock, the heel is not exactly where I want it to be. But it doesn’t show all that much, so it’s OK for me! The second one is better, but I was just too lazy to start over again.
I trusted the lenght of yarn that was mentioned on the label too much. I had two skeins of this self-stripping yarn, so I figured I could just as well knit as far as the wool allowed me, and they would end up roughly the same lenght. Of course, because for one sock the foot is smaller than the other one, I knew they wouldn’t be exactly the same, but I didn’t think there would be a several centimeters difference. Not just my fault there, I guess.
Keep on knitting until the ball ends was not the smartest idea from another point of view as well. I mean, legs get slightly thicker as you go up. And I didn’t widen my socks accordingly. So I can’t pull them up to their full lenght. Which, considering that they don’t have the same lenght anyway, may be an advantage in the end.
While gloves are easy to put on, toe-up socks are not. It requires some fidgetting to get every toe where it’s supposed to be. My husband compared my toes (especially the smallest one) with amoebas when he saw me trying to get them on. Of course, it may just be that I have oddly shaped toes, so if you’ve tried on toe socks before, let me know how well your toes fitted.

I know, quite a few rough patches there, but once I get them on right, I really like these socks. They do feel comfortable and warm. And most of those rough patches are my very own fault. So if you don’t have toes that look like amoebas, these socks might be just the thing for you 😉