Sockssockssockssocks!

They have been haunting me like... Forever. Knitting socks... I loathe knitting for its lack of speed (unlike crochet) and what it does to my poor tennis elbow (ouch). But my. After three months of knitting, frogging, battling with knitting needles and cursing, my first adult fingering weight socks are done!

Lessons learned? A lot.
Lesson # 1: Yarn love! I just love Regia sock yarn, both for knitting and crochet (shawls!). But this heathered yarn was giving me some problems with splitting in the beginning. I knitted socks for Little Man over a year ago, with Regia Stretch, and I never encountered splitting with that yarn.
Lesson # 2: Patience! I took a pattern from the book "Socks from the toe up" by Wendy Johnson, and despised myself in the beginning! I could not memorize the pattern. Until four or five repeats.
Lesson # 3: Knitting methods! These socks were made with magic loop, dpns and two circulars. Yes you read it right, I tried three different knitting methods. I ended up with one sock at a time on two circulars. Next pair will be knitted two at a time on two circulars.

Lesson # 4: To rip or not to rip.... I had to frog my heel on my first socks three times... I thought these socks were blackmailing me! Next time I will use a normal gusset heel instead of a slip stitch heel...
And lesson # 5: Gauge. Somehow, my gauge differs tremendously. On the sole my gauge is 9 sts per inch and on the back of the cuff 8 sts per inch. Not dramatically as this is normal sock gauge, but I have to knit my cuffs a bit tighter.

I am so glad that they are done. Next pair will be for the Big Man. Hopefully they will be done before his birthday, but I am positive about them and will use my lessons learned.

And I know now why it is that Little Man could not be parted with his socks. They feel sooooooo soft. I have crocheted socks but I was not impressed by their stretch. They tend to slobber as the day goes on. These socks stay in shape! You also do not feel the stitches, and they are warm yet breathing. Total love. I hope my tennis elbow will forgive me if I just knitted more socks...