“OMG, these tiny No.1 doublepointed needles are so cute! And the little tiny yarn is so adorable! Sock knitting is just CUTE!”
Gazing in wonder upon my No.1 dp's, I feel a bit as if I'd snuck into a village of Lilliputians and stole their knitting.
In Round 1, much time is spent admiring the demure little needles and looking at the wool and being impressed with 'tiny' and doing absolutely NOTHING about it.
Sock Knitting: Second Round (The "My-Stash-is-in-My-Toolbox Phase”)
“There are so many ways to start! I want to try everything!! Eastern cast-on? That sounds neat! This is exciting!”
Um, until I try it. Suddenly, I have six hands and there's wool loops everywhere and these little tiny stitches do. not. want. to. co-operate.
Hm...Let's try this again:
“Provisional cast on? Sign me up! Oops. Except I don't have any spare fingerling weight wool to use as my provisional piece.”
STASH FAIL! (Apparently, there *is* some advantage to having a large stash of wool at your disposal)
I root through the tool box and find some white twine. (“Hm, this might work if I unwound a strand.”) Except, it doesn't work. Knitting with twine is like...wait for it...knitting with twine.
I guess this is why people don't buy their wool at Canadian Tire. I finally use some crappy old acrylic I dug out of a corner of the closet.
In Round 2, I'm wondering if maybe, while I was robbing those Lilliputians of their knitting, I should have grabbed a Lilliputian or two to take with me - so they could teach me how to use these damned tiny needles.
Sock Knitting - Third Round(The ”Hand Me the Toilet Paper Phase”)
“The hell with it.”
I toss the tiny Lilliputian needles aside and joyfully pick up my GIANT No.8 double pointed needles. Oh, for the joy of wool that I can actually SEE!
After my foray into Lilliputian land, knitting with worsted weight on No.8 needles feels like knitting with toilet paper. Or playing with Fisher Price toys. But I start to get the hang of it.
I practice the provisional cast-on. I practice doing an increase (Every time I see the instruction “Make 1” in a pattern, I want to retort: “Oh yeah? Who's gonna make me?!”)
In Round 3, I feel like I'm rehearsing for a very, very tiny performance.
Sock Knitting - Fourth Round (The "Maybe I don't need the Lilliputians after all Phase”)
“Okay, maybe I'll just cast-on. That's all. Nothing more than that. Just some practice.”
(Oooooo! Fuzzy!)“Hm, not bad. Maybe I should knit a row or two.”
Round 4 finds me finally knitting a sock. To be continued...
size 1 is hard i think. i worked down one needle size at a time. i tried 4s on my first pair of socks (lorna's laces yarn) and later went smaller for doll clothes. i'm looking forward to seeing your progress :-)
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ReplyDeleteHi Bindi - Sorry I didn’t respond to your comments - I forgot to set the blog up to notify me!
Size 1 is difficult to get used to, but once you do, it's VERY addictive. I love knitting with the Size 1's. And dpns absolutely rock! ;-)
I have a pretty good 'sock support network' in my city. I'm fortunate that the author of the book 'Teach Yourself Visually: Sock Knitting' works at the yarn shop a short bike ride from my apartment.
And Toronto's self-described 'Sock Queen' works a few days a week at the same shop. She's already helped me out of a tricky situation involving dropped increase stitches and promised to walk me through the heel if I need help.
But I'm going to tough it out with the 'Visually' book first. There's something deeply satisfying about figuring this stuff out on my own.
I agree with you though - it probably would have gone quicker if I took a class. Unfortunately, I teach in the evenings and seem to have scheduling conflicts with all the sock classes.