Class Sock

The dangers of the Local Yarn Shop (LYS) are many, especially for the uninitiated knitter. For one thing, the LYS is filled with yarn. Yarn Accidents happen. You can get home with a bag of newly purchased yarn, and not remember having bought it. The LYS has knitting supplies. The LYS has knitting books. The LYS offers knitting classes.

What happened to me was, I went to the LYS to show them my first Training Sock, and they showed me a little mini-sock that was incredible to touch. It was beautiful. It made my first little sock look and feel like a first little sock. The owner of the LYS told me that they were offering a class on how to make that beautiful little mini-sock, and that the class hadn't started yet. Well, I was good. I didn't sign up for the class right away. I let that little sock work on me for a day or so, then I went back and signed-up for the sock class.

The thing that was different about this sock was that it was being taught using a new technique: Magic Loop. So I went ahead and bought a circular needle, some darning needles, and a crochet hook for the class when I signed-up for it. The wool for the sock and a book (Sensational Knitted Socks) were provided as part of the class.

Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.

Even though we had some really bad weather, and even though only one other student signed-up for the class, the sock class was held anyway. It was taught on two consecutive weekends, which gave me time to work on it in between classes. Each class was two hours long. The teacher for the class was Karen, a young woman with 6 years of knitting experience. She's been knitting nearly one fourth of her life! She is a very talented knitter and teacher.

With the Magic Loop technique, the sock is knitted using one circular needle, which is two stainless steel needles with a long 40 inch cable attached to them. Instead of dividing the sock between 3 or 4 Double Pointed Needles, the sock is divided between the two needles with a loop of cable between them. Then one of the needles is pulled through the loops, leaving those loops on the cable. The needle that was pulled through becomes the working needle that knits and purls. Back and forth it goes, with each needle being pulled free in turn to be the working needle. It sounds more complicated than it is. Anyway, I went from knitting on dpns to Magic Loop without ever doing socks on two circular needles.

In this picture, the heel has been turned, and the stitches have been divided up for knitting the gusset. The blue stitch markers were placed so I would know where to make the gusset decreases.

This is the finished Class Sock from Sensational Knitted Socks.

I still made plenty of errors in this sock, but I can already tell that I'm becoming a better knitter. I figure that when I'm learning how to knit, I can't afford to be an absolute perfectionist or I'll never get anything done. The Training Socks and the Class Sock were for learning how to knit and to become familiar with sock anatomy.

Sock Anatomy from Socks 101 by Kate Atherley.

My next project will be an adult-sized sock, and I'm going to try my best to do it without making any mistakes.