4/5/2020--Participating in the toe-up sock class with Fancy Tiger Crafts via Zoom! I have just begun and am planning to finish the foot before class tomorrow. (That was our homework.) It is a little tricky converting the knitting instructions in the MDK book from double-point to Magic Loop, but think I’ve got it figured out.

5/14/2020--Both socks finished. It took awhile to figure out how to identify the double-wrapped short row stitches and some practice to figure out how to resolve them. I found Carol Feller’s short row video very helpful. I probably watched it 10 times! And did the heel 10 times until I was convinced that it wasn’t too bed. After the heel was finished, it was all downhill until the cuff. I ended up ripping out the cuff and doing it in a size 1 needle. I didn’t worry much about gauge, but used the needle size specified in the pattern (2). Before I start the next pair, which will be soon, with the same pattern, I will swatch. I figured there is someone in my family who could wear the socks, no matter the size. They are too big for me. They look a little like Dr. Seuss Sox (remember Fox in Socks?). They will be great snow day socks for me. I decided to keep them as reference for my first completed pair of socks rather than give them away. That is why I have them pinned on the sock blocker! (I do have two other single socks, succumbed to Curse of the Single Sock with those).

The pattern does not explain how to w + t, so the knitter will need to look it up if they don’t already know. And there are so many ways. It does say that you can just knit the wrapped stitches instead of resolving them. I tried that on a swatch and preferred resolving them. Suzanne Bryan’s YouTube videos on wrap + turn for heels is excellent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZahZE4GREr0

The pattern does not explain how to prevent the hole in the corner of the heel (sometimes called the “pig eye”) that results from short row and gusset heels. I sewed them up on the inside after the fact, but will experiment with Suzanne Bryan’s technique in the video above next time around.

This MDK Field Guide is beautiful and I plan to try all the socks in it. Sock beginners might need to looks up some terms or watch some tutorials.

I loved making the socks with the group of students and teacher Sunne from Fancy Tiger!