I’m from Mexico. We don’t produce sock yarn, though we have beautiful wool… and imported yarn is expensive and bad for local economy. So I combine our wool with super fine, 2 plie donated yarn and experiment. This video has gave me sooo much useful tips! Thank you!
I made my first socks for a Christmas present - and let me shout the virtues of little shortie circulars! They take a little getting used to in the hand, but then they just breeze along, without all that shuffling. Though I do still need DPNs once the toe gets small enough. Also, since they were a gift, and I didn't know their foot size, I did a heelless sock! It was a vintage pattern with a spiral rib that was meant to help with fit. I'll need to learn heels for myself (since, when I tried them on, my sensitivity issues made me very aware of their twistiness), but the recipient said the socks fit great, plus it was nice to learn sock skills one step at a time.
Oh well I chopped all my hair off on Jan 1st on a whim so fair warning lol (but thank you). Completely valid, not everyone likes knitting everything. But as long as you're not avoiding them out of *fear*, my work here is done :D
This is so great! I’ve only knit heavy wool socks, and I realized while watching your video and explaining to my husband why I haven’t knit any smaller weight socks, it’s largely because I didn’t want to knit a gauge swatch, and most of the patterns I have require it to calculate how many stitches to cast on, etc. But watching this, I’m newly inspired, and going to put on my big-girl pants, and have started my swatch. Thank, as always, for an informative, motivational vlog!😊
Hooray! Please don't take this as actual advice but I have to admit I've never swatched for socks. Just went with the standard (in most patterns) 64 stitches, decided if the end result was a bit too tight or loose and tried a bigger or smaller needle next time depending. The things we do to avoid swatching! 😂
This is one that I've heard a lot about but is still on my "to try sometime" list! Apparently I have a very high instep which is why most short row heels don't feel as good to wear, but with all the variations out there I'm sure there'll be a holy grail heel for even me :D
I just made my first pair of socks last year! I did it 2 at a time and it took me a full month! 😂 I really want to be good at it because like you, I used to live life barefooted, but I now adore socks!!❤ Thank you for the explanation, now to check out some of those tutorials and hopefully start another pair of socks! 😊
I don't know why so many us choose TAAT for our first pair but it really does make it painfully slow! Still, no second sock syndrome is a big upside so you've got that going for you :D Good luck with the second pair!
Fascinating! I've been trying to knit socks since January of last year, and yeah.. turns out I only have 50% of the required skills.. back to the tube of cheap yarn to practice on!
It would be possible to learn them by doing them on socks for the first time, but like I said in the video it's maybe just best to practise on something less fiddly first. It tends to be overall less frustrating. Still, it's not a huge list of skills so I'm sure you can pick up the missing parts easily enough! I believe in you! :D
That's a great place to start, honestly, gives you a lot of practise in terms of tension and it doesn't really matter if one end of a scarf is a bit wider than the other so you can't really muck it up! Knitting the 6ft long Tom Baker scarf back when I was fairly new definitely helped me knit a lot more neatly by the end of it, but that's maybe a bit of an extreme example 😅 If you are interested in branching out though a lot of people move onto something like a hat (also teaches decreasing etc) or a simple cowl in order to learn knitting in the round, and once you can do that it opens up so many other possibilities and pattern types. The only thing I'd *really* recommend avoiding until you're more confident is complicated lace patterns. Shawls etc can be a lot harder than they look. But most other knitting projects, including socks, are just a case of using the absolute basic stitches and following the instructions one bit at a time.
3:09 Love the Packers shout-out! (I'm so cross that they let the game yesterday get away.) I'm completely new here. I subscribed to your channel last night during the Packers playoff game. My wife was participating in the stitch-a-thon event while we watched. (I'm the one with the bad larangytis). I will be going through this video in extreme detail and thinking about whether I want to really take up knitting. I've always meant to, and I've sat down with someone and gotten the basic technique down like three times, but then never got far enough to get anything made. I guess what I need to do is use this video as a "when you have the skills" preview, and make a couple of flat things to get my stitching uniform enough that it's worth applying it to another project. Thanks for your videos. I'm looking forward to going through your back catalog.
Oh that a first timer would have You at there beck and call to help……I love making self striping vanilla socks as they are so soothing to the soul…….my first pair were word for word instructions by Susan Anderson….she has a free vanilla sock on Ravelry…..thank You for your take……as this is such a great endeavor for all the reasons You mentioned……
Yes! I think my next pair is going to be vanilla just because they're so relaxing to make and the yarn doesn't need a special pattern to look great. I'll maybe check out Susan Anderson, despite already knowing how to make socks I do enjoy investigating beginner patterns in order to build up my recommendations for others!
I recently remembered seeing something about knitting two socks at one time. Now (after you outlined the reasons for knitting one”s own socks and converted me), I looked this up as a way to avoid the dreaded “second sock letdown” as I’ve come to call it, and found one video that demos doing so on a circular needle. I wondered if you had tried this, since you mentioned using circular needles already? I use DPNs (for the one-and+three=quarters pairs so far), but could be persuaded to switch if this could work to avoid that lol
Yes! I actually did my first ever pair two at a time on one circular, and it just wasn't for me I found it a bit too much of a faff. But I know plenty of people who swear by it, so definitely worth giving these things a try to see what works for you! Sorry not sorry for the enabling, apparently I'm more convincing than I thought 😅
I’m from Mexico. We don’t produce sock yarn, though we have beautiful wool… and imported yarn is expensive and bad for local economy. So I combine our wool with super fine, 2 plie donated yarn and experiment. This video has gave me sooo much useful tips! Thank you!
I made my first socks for a Christmas present - and let me shout the virtues of little shortie circulars! They take a little getting used to in the hand, but then they just breeze along, without all that shuffling. Though I do still need DPNs once the toe gets small enough.
Also, since they were a gift, and I didn't know their foot size, I did a heelless sock! It was a vintage pattern with a spiral rib that was meant to help with fit. I'll need to learn heels for myself (since, when I tried them on, my sensitivity issues made me very aware of their twistiness), but the recipient said the socks fit great, plus it was nice to learn sock skills one step at a time.
I love your make up and hair. Looks amazing. And while I’ve been dying to try socks, I don’t think I’ll ever take the plunge.
Oh well I chopped all my hair off on Jan 1st on a whim so fair warning lol (but thank you). Completely valid, not everyone likes knitting everything. But as long as you're not avoiding them out of *fear*, my work here is done :D
This is so great! I’ve only knit heavy wool socks, and I realized while watching your video and explaining to my husband why I haven’t knit any smaller weight socks, it’s largely because I didn’t want to knit a gauge swatch, and most of the patterns I have require it to calculate how many stitches to cast on, etc. But watching this, I’m newly inspired, and going to put on my big-girl pants, and have started my swatch. Thank, as always, for an informative, motivational vlog!😊
Hooray! Please don't take this as actual advice but I have to admit I've never swatched for socks. Just went with the standard (in most patterns) 64 stitches, decided if the end result was a bit too tight or loose and tried a bigger or smaller needle next time depending. The things we do to avoid swatching! 😂
Very good beginner intro to socks. My favourite heel is the Sweet Tomato Heel.
This is one that I've heard a lot about but is still on my "to try sometime" list! Apparently I have a very high instep which is why most short row heels don't feel as good to wear, but with all the variations out there I'm sure there'll be a holy grail heel for even me :D
I just made my first pair of socks last year! I did it 2 at a time and it took me a full month! 😂 I really want to be good at it because like you, I used to live life barefooted, but I now adore socks!!❤ Thank you for the explanation, now to check out some of those tutorials and hopefully start another pair of socks! 😊
I don't know why so many us choose TAAT for our first pair but it really does make it painfully slow! Still, no second sock syndrome is a big upside so you've got that going for you :D
Good luck with the second pair!
Fascinating! I've been trying to knit socks since January of last year, and yeah.. turns out I only have 50% of the required skills.. back to the tube of cheap yarn to practice on!
It would be possible to learn them by doing them on socks for the first time, but like I said in the video it's maybe just best to practise on something less fiddly first. It tends to be overall less frustrating. Still, it's not a huge list of skills so I'm sure you can pick up the missing parts easily enough! I believe in you! :D
Amazing explanation! Now I want to make socks, thank you Michelle! 🤭 I laughed so much at your "hur hur hur" 🤣
This is so helpful! I’ve only knit a scarf before and everything else feels overwhelming.
That's a great place to start, honestly, gives you a lot of practise in terms of tension and it doesn't really matter if one end of a scarf is a bit wider than the other so you can't really muck it up! Knitting the 6ft long Tom Baker scarf back when I was fairly new definitely helped me knit a lot more neatly by the end of it, but that's maybe a bit of an extreme example 😅
If you are interested in branching out though a lot of people move onto something like a hat (also teaches decreasing etc) or a simple cowl in order to learn knitting in the round, and once you can do that it opens up so many other possibilities and pattern types.
The only thing I'd *really* recommend avoiding until you're more confident is complicated lace patterns. Shawls etc can be a lot harder than they look. But most other knitting projects, including socks, are just a case of using the absolute basic stitches and following the instructions one bit at a time.
Thank you!!
3:09 Love the Packers shout-out! (I'm so cross that they let the game yesterday get away.)
I'm completely new here. I subscribed to your channel last night during the Packers playoff game. My wife was participating in the stitch-a-thon event while we watched. (I'm the one with the bad larangytis).
I will be going through this video in extreme detail and thinking about whether I want to really take up knitting. I've always meant to, and I've sat down with someone and gotten the basic technique down like three times, but then never got far enough to get anything made. I guess what I need to do is use this video as a "when you have the skills" preview, and make a couple of flat things to get my stitching uniform enough that it's worth applying it to another project.
Thanks for your videos. I'm looking forward to going through your back catalog.
Very helpful!
Yay I'm glad, happy sock knitting!
Oh that a first timer would have You at there beck and call to help……I love making self striping vanilla socks as they are so soothing to the soul…….my first pair were word for word instructions by Susan Anderson….she has a free vanilla sock on Ravelry…..thank You for your take……as this is such a great endeavor for all the reasons You mentioned……
Yes! I think my next pair is going to be vanilla just because they're so relaxing to make and the yarn doesn't need a special pattern to look great. I'll maybe check out Susan Anderson, despite already knowing how to make socks I do enjoy investigating beginner patterns in order to build up my recommendations for others!
I recently remembered seeing something about knitting two socks at one time. Now (after you outlined the reasons for knitting one”s own socks and converted me), I looked this up as a way to avoid the dreaded “second sock letdown” as I’ve come to call it, and found one video that demos doing so on a circular needle. I wondered if you had tried this, since you mentioned using circular needles already? I use DPNs (for the one-and+three=quarters pairs so far), but could be persuaded to switch if this could work to avoid that lol
Yes! I actually did my first ever pair two at a time on one circular, and it just wasn't for me I found it a bit too much of a faff. But I know plenty of people who swear by it, so definitely worth giving these things a try to see what works for you! Sorry not sorry for the enabling, apparently I'm more convincing than I thought 😅
OK I can only 2 do of these things so I am definitely not sock ready yet!
But I bet it won't take you long to get there!