Sorry for being away from our socks but the weather hasn't been in my favour this past week and I like to be able to take photos so you can see what I'm doing. Also I've been trying to finish off hubs socks as well.

So for today's post I'm going to continue onto the next step in knitting our socks. We have completed the heel flap, which is worked on just two needles. And once that is finished it's time to turn the heel.

Heel flap

When you finish turning the heel you should end up with 18 stitches and the last row requires you to knit across these stitches. This is so we will be ready to setup our gusset which is the next step.

Heel turned

So this is just a short post today to hopefully show you what your sock should look like. I will be posting in the next couple of days showing you how to setup for the gusset.

I've also decided that when I make its mate I will be doing video's and posting them on Youtube. I'm doing this as I think some people find it easier to look at a video rather than reading and photos. I know I find it easier!

Hope this is helpful. Need help? Contact me.

Happy Knitting
Sharyn

So for today's post I thought I would post about my weekend knitting. I actually have two projects in my bag and that's unusual for me. I always just concentrate on one pair of socks at a time and then when I just have to sew in ends I will cast on for another pair.

Weekend Knitting

I don't have that far to go with the orange socks which were my current work in progress and I started the purple ones to guide beginner sock knitters with. The purple ones are going to be a bit slow as I'm posting each step for beginner knitters to follow along. With the orange socks I'm almost at the gusset and once I'm there I always think I'm on the homeward stretch.

Picking up stitches

I'm going to concentrate on these orange ones and hopefully get them done, if not by the end of the weekend then hopefully by Monday.

I had a nice comment by a lady when I posted about these socks before saying when she knits socks with bright colours she likes to knit stripes to break up the colour. This gave me some food for thought and if I hadn't been so far ahead with these I would have considered it. I had some navy and I like orange and navy together. My thinking was I would knit the legs in orange and then mix up the feet with missed matched stripes of varying width of stripes and different coloured heels. I got quite excited about it but then realised that I had already knitted it's mate:-(

This is the great thing about learning how to knit socks as you can make them any colours you like and if you really start to get into it, you will end up with lots of leftover yarn. And then if you are making them for family you can make stripy socks using up the leftovers.

So anyway lets see how I go this weekend, here's hoping I get them finished. Have a great weekend.

Enjoy your weekend knitting
Sharyn

So for today's post we are going to be moving along to the heel flap but first off you need to knit the leg to the desired length. I've knitted mine longer this time around, I haven't been knitting for a little while and I was enjoying it so much I got carried away. Of course I could pull it back a bit but I don't like doing that sort of thing.

I knitted my leg length to 7 1/2"

So now I'm about to knit my heel flap, so I just want to clarify that your first and second needle will be your heel stitches and your third and fourth needle will become your instep stitches. Now when you go to knit your heel flap it's best to move the stitches from your second needle onto your first needle so that you are knitting your heel flap on one needle.

Transferring my stitches to needle one

Heel stitches on 1 needle ready for knitting

If you are following this pattern and using five needles you will already have your other two needles set up. And then what I do is follow rows 3 and 4 for the whole heel flap and I do just 32 rows all up, that's 16 rows for each row.

Repeat rows 3 and 4, 16 times each

Now of course you don't have to follow what I said, this is just the way I like to do it.  You can follow the pattern instead. Next time we will be turning the heel and looking at the gusset and how to set it up. I hope you have a great weekend.
Hope this is helpful. Need help? Contact me.

Happy Knitting
Sharyn

So today I thought I would look at knitting our first pair of socks. To find a sock pattern you could Google to find a free pattern for beginners or you could also check out Ravelry. Ravelry is a free community of knitters and people who crochet. It's a great resource for patterns, free and paid for. The website also has groups that have forums you can join, where you will find people that enjoy the same things you do. I can easily spend hours browsing the pattern section looking for new patterns.

So this is the pattern I've picked to knit as the first pair for a beginner sock knitter. Now you don't need to join Ravelry and download this pattern if you choose to check out Google that's fine. This pattern is just a plain pattern where you rib for the cuff and then the rest of the knitting is plain knit, a very simple pattern. What I thought I would do is go through the steps and take photo's along the way, this way you can follow along and if you are using a different pattern it should not be too hard to work out what to do. I'm also more than happy to answer any questions or do a video if it helps to show you how to go about it.

This pattern would be a woman's medium sock pattern and you knit it using 5 dpn and the first thing we need to do is our gauge. Make sure to first wash and dry your swatch before measuring and counting. Then measure 2" and divide between 2 and that will give you your 1" gauge.

Now for the cast on, it says to use the long tail cast on but if you're new and not sure how to go about it just cast on using a basic cable cast on. It`s then just a simple task to slip your 16 stitches onto their needles. It`s then just a matter of slipping the first stitch you cast on to the last needle and then taking the last stitch and slipping it onto the first needle. The most IMPORTANT step here is to make sure you do not twist the stitches. The easiest way to check this is to make sure all the bumps are on the inside of your work.


Hope this is helpful. Need help? Contact me.

Happy Knitting
Sharyn

Slip knot on one needle with a long tail

Slip stitch on one needle with ball yarn over index finger and tail over thumb

So my left hand position is with my index finger on top and the yarn from the ball over it and my thumb below and the yarn from the tail over it. You can see this in the above photo. So I then move my thumb on top and my yarn around the thumb forms a loop you then bring the needle behind the yarn from the ball and through the loop on the thumb to form a stitch.

See how I bring the needle behind the yarn from the ball through the loop to form a new stitch

I basically just move my thumb from the down position to the top position to keep on creating new stitches.

A new stitch formed

So you just keep going until you have enough stitches on the needle for your sock. I cast on all the stitches and then just move them around. That's how I do my long tail cast on.

Keep casting on until you have the correct number of stitches for your socks

Hope this is helpful. Need help? Contact me.

Happy Knitting
Sharyn

So it's been a bit chilly here in Adelaide, so that makes for good knitting weather. So today I thought I would go off topic and share a bit about one of my hobbies. I'm currently doing some charity knitting for the homeless. I thought this would be a good way for me to use up some of my stash. I have a lot of yarn:-)

My charity knitting occurred by accident actually, someone in one of the Facebook groups I belong to posted about knitting for the homeless. They were saying that they were doing it in other states so why shouldn't we do it. That started the ball rolling and it has snow balled from there.

They were asking for yarn, knitted/crocheted blankets, jumpers, gloves and scarves. Any yarn they get will be knitted/crocheted into squares for blankets.

Stash yarn for a crocheted blanket

 So I have knitted several beanies, just plain ones and they are all made from wool yarn. I prefer using natural fibres when knitting, this of course is just my preference. 

Child's jumper front

Also a few years ago I purchased a bit of wool yarn to start a business on Etsy to sell handmade knitted children's garments. I soon realised that wasn't viable as I couldn't purchase yarn wholesale. So before I actually realised this I had started knitting children's garments. So I plan on donating them to the homeless but first I need to do the finishing touches, like sew them up and finish of the neck edgings. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.



Happy Knitting
Sharyn

Today in Adelaide it's been a bit chilly, so this makes for a great sock knitting day.  On a cold day, you will usually find me knitting unless I have to go out to work. It just seems right to knit more at this time of year, I do still knit in the summer time but I find I don't do as much.