A Heel-Turning Virgin No Longer
January 9th, 2009 by Mama
If you're new to this blog, you may want to subscribe.
Thanks for reading Vegetarian Frugal Housewife!
“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”
~ Arnold Henry Glasow, American Thinker & Humorist
I did it! I did it! Check it out…a successfully turned sock heel. No tears. No tragedies. No runs. Just a heel…simple.
I have finally made a sock that is shaped like a foot! Imagine that? Lil’ ole me? How cool!
I told the harrowing tale of my lack of sock-making prowess in a previous post. After nine tries with several different techniques, patterns and yarns, I have achieved sockdom! Yay for me! Two pairs complete now.
Anyone who doesn’t knit is probably thinking, “Okay, so this chick is crazy.” But anyone who does knit and has tried to graduate from flatness (ie. blankets and scarves) to shapeliness (ie. sweaters, teddy bears, gloves and socks) can probably grasp my joy.
Making a thing rounded, and knitting so that it turns corners etc., is essentially easy. But if you’ve never done it before you don’t KNOW that.
The directions for heel turning, and necks and armholes and other such things, seem counter-intuitive to the first-timer. Hence the problem. You don’t want to do exactly what the directions say, you want to interpret them, through the mind if a flat-knitter.
All I can say is: “Don’t interpret, just do!”
Once I figured that out, it actually worked! Imagine that? Directions that work? LOL.
Now that I have done it a couple of times I feel really confident about sock-making. There is no longer anything about socks that I am unable to do, but I must admit that I don’t particularly enjoy the picking up stitches after you’ve turned the heel. I can do it though, just not as enjoyable as, say, doing the toe.
I promise that once you’ve turned ONE heel (or maybe TWO,) you will have it mastered. :-)
So here is to self-striping yarns, yummy dye lots, squishy alpaca, shiny silk, curly mohair and, oh yeah, Happy Knitting!
By the way, you can find me on Ravelry as owlsocks. ;-)