Hi lovely knitters!

How are things with you? We now have a little more certainty as we know that the kids will be at home with us for the foreseeable. We are working on getting routines in place so that they can learn (we are lucky in both being former teachers) and have fun, and hopefully we will be able to work too. Youngest is currently weighing out ingredients for brownies so it’s definitely so far so good! Our thoughts are with you all at this time.

I’ve been thinking about our Comfort Blanket plan, and working out how to keep things manageable for us all, and my plan is crystallising… I’m going to work to a set template dimension, so that you can mix and match ideas, and I’m going to keep the techniques simple. I don’t know about you, but keeping things simple seems like a good plan at the moment!

My next step is to knit a basic square in each of aran and 4ply so that I can work out yarn quantities for different dimensions of blanket. I’ll bring you some photos and updates once I’ve done that.

In the meantime, I’ve turned to my default happy-place knitting and I’m working on some plain socks in gorgeous Fab Funky Fibres self-striping yarn. A friend emailed me this morning to say that she would like to learn to knit socks, and asked me to point her at some resources. Rather than just email her my reply, I thought I would write it up here in the hope that it might help others too.

Casting on…
I suggest using a long-tail cast on, since it’s reasonably stretchy and a good basic method. That link is to a video by Very Pink Knits, whose videos I would highly recommend if we don’t have what you are looking for.

Knitting in the round…
There are lots of options for how to knit in the round for socks. Here are a couple of links to video tutorials for the most obvious options: Double-pointed needles (DPNs) and Magic loop. These are both Very Pink Knits videos too.

It’s really a matter of personal preference which of those you like best. I switch between the two depending on what needles I have to hand. There are many other options if you don’t get on well with either DPNs or Magic loop, so let me know in the comments if you’d like other options later.

The heel…
Again, there are lots of options for different heel constructions, but I would start with a heel flap and turn, or an afterthought heel. Both of these links are to our video tutorials, which should walk you through the methods.

Closing the toe…
Finally, you’ll need to decrease for the toe and then close the remaining stitches. The best way to do this (in my humble opinion!) is to use Kitchener Stitch (also called grafting), and we have a video for that here: Kitchener Stitch

What kit do I need?
You could really go to town setting yourself up with kit for learning to knit socks, but to get going I would recommend the following list:
A set of 2.5mm DPNs or a 2.5mm circular needle, 100cm long, (if you knit tightly you might need 2.75mm and if you knit loosely, then 2.25mm might be better)
A copy of Coop Knits Socks Yeah! Volume 1 (and if you fancy it, a copy of A Year of Techniques if you don’t already have it, for the heel turn and afterthought heel tutorials and patterns)
100g of 4ply sock yarn (or more if you want to make more than one pair, but you’ll need 100g per pair of socks).

I’m off to knit round and round on my socks for a bit longer, or until the brownies are cooked. I’ll be back soon with some more information about the blanket plans!

Knit on!