Sock, sock, who's got the sock?

I DO, I DO!

Thanks for all of the words of encouragement that literally propelled me over my fear precipice of grafting the toe. Despite a few starts and stops and curse-filled tear backs, with many, many misgivings, I finally snugged it all up and presto-chango, here 'tis, my first grafted sock toe:

Sorry it's a tad blurry, but I was working solo. The wee ones are not to be trusted with the digital camera quite yet. Looks a bit like some sort of sock creature, doesn't it? Happy coincidence. The one side is a tad lumpy, and I think I snugged the stitches a bit too much, but hey, I can live with it. I think the yarn kind of masks it too. I still have qualms about whether or not the whole thing will unravel once I finally get #2 done and try wearing them. The whole tie off and weave in thing seems a bit dodgy to me. But overall, for my 3rd knitted FO, I am over the moon pleased.

Here be the details. Yarn is Crazy in color 013. Everything on the label is in what I imagine to be German, except for the word "superwash" of which it is 75%. The remaining 25% being polyamid. The skeins are 50g with about 125 m, which I now know is not enough to make one sock for my chunky foot and ankle. Needed probably 1/4 of another skein. Good thing I have 3 since I was crocheting socks at the time I bought the yarn. Don't ask me why I chose black and grey. For some reason I thought "well, I wear a lot of black so this will be perfect." It's fine, but will most definitely be looking for something a tad more exciting next time around. I do however, have a deep appreciation for the less than dental floss nature of this yarn. Thicker yarn, size 3 needles highly recommended for the beginner. Am now fighting with some Tofuttsi on 0s and am not really having much fun. Hopefully will get the knack soon. Worked it on size 3 40" Addi circulars, magic loop style and am pleased to say that you cannot tell where the cables went through at all. With the cursed Tofuttsi it seems to be another matter. Perhaps certain yarns work better with magic loop than others?

The pattern is the 4 stitch out of Charlene Schurch's fabulous Sensational Knitted Socks. I used the baby cables pattern option. Nice little stitch trick to get you some cabling action with no extra needles needed. I highly, highly, highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn socks. She walks you through everything. Her directions are very clear. AND she has directions for every sock style written out for 5 DPN, 4 DPN and 2 circular knitting. (and you can use the 2 circular direction for magic loop) BRAVO for recognizing there are many ways to do the same thing and making life just a tad easier on us all! I would only ask for some actual photos of the grafting process, as the illustration given helped me not one bit. My allergy stuffed brain could not follow it. However, the wonderful Sally Melville has precisely that in her equally fabulous second volume of her The Knitting Experience series: The Purl Stitch. Yeah Sally! (and if you want to learn to knit, I cannot more emphatically recommend her books to teach you the ins adn outs of how. These books are amazingly complete references, with actual photos of most everything...even weaving in ends!)

So, Mission Sock-o One-o completed, on to the sequel. (which may take a bit as I am ever distracted by the traditional crochet phenomenon keeping my inbox full of wanna-be ripplers and my hooks blazing with ripples and granny squares. must. make. time. to. knit!)