Lilysunshine

My Seaweed socks are finished! I can’t believe it took me less than a month from start to finish. This feat has been achieved thanks to my Little One whose sleeps patterns have become much more regular. I now have at least 1 hour every evening solely devoted to knitting! GREAT! Nothing like knitting to take your mind off things and help you relax after a long day of taking care of your little family.

So, the Seaweeds are done!… I enjoyed making them very much and I hope their recipient will enjoy them as much as I did while making them.

I used a few new techniques with these socks: Turkish cast-on, gusset heel and heel flap and of course, 2 socks at a time on 1 circular needle.
The Turkish cast-on is now my favourite cast-on for toe-up socks. It is REALLY easy and very clean. No fiddling with waste yarn, no complicated way of wrapping the yarn around the needles. Perfect. Here is the tutorial I used for this Turkish cast-on.
Gusset heel and heel flaps. Really easy too and neater than a short-row heel: no holes at all. BUT, I don’t like the plain stockinette stitch on the side of the foot. I know there are some patterns out there where the gusset’s got its very special pattern (cables, or whatever) and I will like that better. I could have tried recreating the seaweed pattern on the gusset, but it was my first time and I didn’t want to think too much!
I really enjoyed doing 2 socks at the same time on 1 needle. Yes, it’s a bit fiddly with the yarn. I used a center pull ball, drawing the yarn from both the inside and the outside. It does tangle. So I had to stop every few rows to untangle. Not that big a deal, really. Yes, the rows are ‘longer’. But when you pause and think, you realise that when you are done with this sock, you are in fact done with BOTH socks. No Second Sock Syndrome there. And when you make a change, it’s easy to make a change to BOTH socks. Of course, when you do the heels, you do one at a time, but that’s ok. I will keep on doing 2 socks at a time from now on. Much better method for me who gets easily bored!

Seaweed Socks, finished!

The picture is not that great, but I was in a rush. (I really have to spend more time taking good pictures… if the wee ‘un lets me…).
The pattern called for only 1 inch of 2×2 ribbing for the cuff, but I thought 2 inches would be better to prevent any case of slouchiness. The leg part is 7 inches long in total: 2 inches for the cuff and 5 inches of pattern. The foot is about 9 inches: I tried to aim for a size 6 (UK size). I hope I got it right! Difficult to say without knowing what shoe size the recipient is. Fingers crossed!

I’ve already started on my next socks: Mini Seaweeds! I’m making the same socks, baby size, for Lucas. The toes are done already and the first repeat of the seaweed pattern too. More on that at a later date!

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