32 things, #9: Socks for my husband, part 1

One of the items on my 32 things list was to knit a pair of socks for my husband. He had specifically requested a pair of brightly coloured socks, so I decided that the perfect solution would be to use some of the yarn he bought me for Mother's Day to make him some socks for Father's Day.

 

I cast on with 72 sts per sock, which was a bit of a guess; my husband has large feet (UK size 14), but knitting two at a time I knit much tighter than one at a time, so I decided that I may as well just cast on the socks and treat them as a tension test. Of course they turned out too small - this is the tightest knitting I've ever done, with the socks coming out at 36 sts per 4 inches.

I tried again, after a few calculations, with 84 sts per sock. This turned out much better, and the colour distribution is nicer, which is a bonus.

I knitted an Eye of Patridge heel, which went a bit crazy tweedy, and I had to move the socks onto two circulars for the gusset as there were so many stitches. I didn't really enjoy using two circulars at first, but it got much better (and less tangled) with practise! Father's Day was the Sunday just gone, and the socks were, inevitably, not complete. I'm still on the gussets and they are taking ages as there are so many stitches to decrease.

 

With the knitting I've done so far on these socks, I've realised that I now know the anatomy of a sock. I haven't had to look at many instructions, just one to remind myself of the sequence for EOP, one to work out how deep to make the heel, and another to work out roughly how many rows the toe would take, which is better than I thought I'd do.

And as for Father's Day? I bought some back up chocolates from Hotel Chocolat (delicious, one of our family's favourite treats, not for sharing with small people), which went down well. And these socks can be a bonus present in a week or two.