Casting on More?

Oh yes I have! No more of this being scared crap! A week ago, knitting socks seemed like an insurmountable fear - but not anymore!

And it's no thanks to stupid sock patterns either. I think I may have read about 20 of them and I just couldn't get it to click. You want to know their advice for first timers? "Just follow the directions. You'll see." Well, I don't work like that. I feel most comfortable when I understand what it is I'm trying to accomplish. I don't do very well when I just blindly follow directions, you know?

So I went on to You Tube and searched for "Knitting socks" to find my savior. She came to me in the form of Dorret and you can find her at http://www.youtube.com/user/dorret. I took the brave step last night, with hand dyed yarn in tow, and cast on my first sock:


The things that I really like about her videos and what made me feel so comfortable with them is that she was knitting exactly how I knit, and explaining as she went what she was doing and why she was doing it. She was knitting english style, and on a set of 4 double pointed needles. I could never figure out why you had to have 5 of them, especially because all of mine are sets of 4. Why would they make sets of 4 if you needed 5 for socks?

I still wish I had someone here in front of me explaining how this works though, that I coudl ask questions to as I go. For instance, I think I'm knitting this sock inside out. I did about 2" of 2x2 ribbing for the top of the sock and then starting on knit rounds, but it's making the purl side out, you know what I mean? The photo up above was taken a couple of hours ago and by now I'm starting to knit just the flat heel part. All I can think of is that I'll have to turn it right side out later, or purl instead of knit, which I seriously don't want to do. Why hasn't anyone mentioned this yet? Way weird.

I am absolutely *LOVING* my yarn for this though. The long repeats make it absolutely perfect for socks. I love how I'm getting a blue row every few rows, then followed by some green now and again. It's perfect!

Wish me luck with that whole "turning" thing.