Two-At-A-Time, It Ain't So Bad

At first, I thought the yarn would be a tangled mess, I would lose track of the needle(s) or some other random excuse. The truth is that it's pretty simple to figure this all out. Maybe a tiny bit more fiddling and sorting the yarn is in order if you're using multiple skeins but it isn't so bad.

Some of my more inspiring insta-friends have been whipping socks out and there I was, afraid to let go of my DPNs. For my next pair there had to be a change. I bought myself a 40” circular needle and some pretty yarns and here I go!

Finding a simple pattern for two-up "two-at-a-time" with an afterthought heel was a bit of a challenge so I did a combination of the cast-on and toe-up from Heidi Bears and since I'm making this pair for my Mom who has smaller feet, worked it up to only 56 stitches instead of the typical 64 around. Heidi Bears had a great diagram on her post as well to make this easier. The rest of the sock will be based on the pattern from Loop Knit Lounge which includes the afterthought heel and it is written for 48, 56 or 64 stitches. Perfect. 

For these socks, I'm using Knit Picks Stroll Fingering "Make Believe" and Black Market Wool's The Milo "Room Without A Window” to create my own stripes. I plan on doing the toes, three stripes, the heel and the upper band of the sock in the aqua and the rest in the purple-ish blend. 

The photo above marks one day's knitting in my spare time! How nice will it be to have two finished at the same time?

Ugly Socks

I will admit here and only once that my first adult pair of socks took me about two and a half years to complete. It was all because of that second sock. Call it "second sock syndrome" or whatever you'd like. They traveled across The United States! The yarn used for these was Lion Brand's Sock-Ease Prints in "Lemon Drop" and perhaps I chose the wrong project for them but these are referred to as my "Ugly Socks" now. I started the second sock's ribbing incorrectly and had to redo the whole thing. It was traumatic and I felt defeated but I pushed on. Happy I finally finished them.

Here they are:

I guess they aren't so bad.