Easy peasy!

I'm really concerned about how little trouble I am having with my revamped Monkey socks. I had started them in September, done a lot in a little time, and then got bored with all of the purling and stopped. Good thing.

It turned out that I had been knitting them backwards; I'd pushed the right side into my the space between my DPNs, and therefore was knitting the whole thing in reverse. Stupid, but it was still okay, at least until I went and did the heel inside out, too. Then I was all messed up. I frogged the whole thing, and started over again this Tuesday. Right now, I'm about to start decreasing, and I feel so much better about my skills as a knitter, and my ability to read and understand a pattern. Also, I got to practice my short row heels again and am really getting the hang of it now, which is awesome.

I can see why people keep making these socks again and again (the other day I met a woman who has made 5 pairs of Monkeys in a very short time). They're cute, fun, and really easy, and I think I will make myself a pair soon, after I get through all of the obligatory knitting that I need to finish up.

Weird

Okay, I have no idea when I became such a perfectionist. Usually pretty good is just fine with me, but for some reason, I cannot stand to have blatant (to me) imperfections on this sock. The person I'm giving this to really wouldn't care if I had to go back after knitting it and tighten up a few holes, but I care. I looked at my heel, and could see how nice it would have been if I hadn't forgotten to slip the first stitch a couple of times, and had to frog it. Okay, third time's the charm, right?

Revelation

I've heard a lot about short row heels, but I didn't really know what that meant until I looked it up yesterday (it seemed a little obvious, but when it comes to knitting, I don't assume anything). I was interested in trying something new on my Monkey socks, and since I was still using dpns and knitting from the cuff down, I figured that I'd innovate with the heel. I used the marvelous Kaity's clear and helpful tutorial to learn how to give my sock a short row heel. Success (mostly, but the error was mine, not hers)! Then I wasn't sure what I should do to accommodate the ankle, but both Kaity and Joy were helpful and told me that I didn't need to add any more stitches. I'm going to go get started on the bottom of the sock now!



My sock looks so bulky, not at all like the pretty pictures I see on Ravelry, and I cannot wait to block them once they're finished. Can you believe I actually want to block anything, much less this enthusiastically?? I think I've only blocked two items in my life (I should change this).