I’m testing the waters of sock-knitting! To make this first pair faster/easier, I’m using a heavier weight of yarn-- just something I already had in my stash.

Instead of using double-pointed needles, I’m using magic loop and making them two-at-a-time. (…So there’s a fair bit of improvising from the step-by-step pattern, to start with…)

I found this KnitPurlHunter video helpful for getting the TAAT started.

Whew! I ran into some difficulty with translating from double-pointed needles to magic loop. It’s probably pretty straightforward, if you’re experienced with sock-knitting and/or dpns, but for me it took some pausing and head-scratching. I think I more or less have it figured out, but I ended up taking one of the socks off the needles after turning the heel on the other one. The circular needle just wouldn’t work with both socks on there, at that point. No biggie, but of course it took a little time to figure that out and move the sock to “placeholder” needles (and back again).

These would have been easier if the pattern had been written for magic loop, but I’m definitely getting the gist of sock construction. For my next socks, I think I’ll try Silver’s TAAT toe-up class. If I can get past the funky-looking cast-on, I think it shouldn’t be any more difficult than this pair has been.

All that said-- it was pretty neat to turn my first heel! I can see why people say that knitting socks feels like magic. Thank goodness for patterns, because I doubt I could ever have figured this witchery out for myself. ;o)

Okay, I frogged ‘em.

The problem was that I set them aside for too long before finally deciding it was time to finish them (only because I wanted the circular needle they were on).

I thought everything was going smoothly during the toe, only to realize that I’d gotten confused about which groups of stitches were supposed to be “needle 1”, “needle 2” and “needle 3”. Result? The decreases were in the wrong place and I was ending up with with really weird toes. (g)

Well, the answer is clear: don’t try to learn to knit socks TAAT on magic loop using a pattern written for 4 dpns! Lesson learned! I could’ve ripped back and reworked, but honestly, it’s not worth it for a pair of socks I would probably never have worn. I’d rather just rip the whole thing out and start again with real sock yarn and a pattern that doesn’t require quite so much mental gymnastics.