Knitting Socks (or, What the hell is a gusset?)

Yesterday, my good friend Jamie and I had a chance to take a sock knitting class at Creative Yarns in Macon. It was a blast, although quite confusing at times (damn gussets). The instructor taught us to knit a toddler sock on larger needles and with heavier weight yarn so that we could learn the techniques and leave with a finished piece. I really doubted my ability to knit an entire sock in one sitting, but Jamie and I both finished ours and they turned out so cute.

This was my first experience with double pointed needles. I’ve only used them once before to knit I-cord, which is nothing like knitting with four at one time. Very awkward at first, but after a few hours, I got the hang of it.

Since one of my classes at Squam requires some experience with DPNs, I’m glad I had the opportunity to do this before I head up north next month .

In my opinion, the gussets are by far the hardest part. First, you have to learn what the heck a gusset is (and if you’re lucky, Jamie circles it very neatly for you on the picture on your instruction sheet). Then you have to pick up stitches from the heel. “Pick up” sounds like a relatively simple movement to perform – not so much. Nevertheless, I’ll spare you the details on how to knit a sock (mostly because there’s no way I could begin to explain it in anything that resembled intelligent English, if I could explain it at all).

So this morning I decided if I was to remember anything of what I learned yesterday (which was a lot), I should probably start on the second sock immediately. So I’ve cast on and knit about 3 or 4 rows. I’m hoping that isn’t the end of the story for this cute little pair! More to come on the fate of sock #2…

I have a couple of other projects I want to show, but since they’re gifts for a special someone I’m going to have to wait until they’ve been gifted to show them off…stand by.