Sweet Treats!: 1st Sock Adventure, And It's No Plain Jane

Ok, no I have never knitted any socks. In my sock ventures and sock searching I came across this book and it has been on my wishlist for a while now. Op-Art is a wonderful sock book with stranded color-work patterns. I like that they show them in different colors and yarns as well as in classic black and white for each sock. As a first time knitter I know I probably should have chosen something simple and plain and not a stranded color-work sock but I couldn’t resist and that just wouldn’t be me. I want to make them all in colors and black & white and it’s hard to choose which one to do first. When adding the book to my Ravelry library I found the Op-Art-Socks Group. This group does a KAL for the socks in the book. I joined the group in March and I couldn't join in that months KAL because my yarn took forever to get here but I was determined for the next month. April's KAL sock was Maurits. I wanted and could not resist to join but of course I have no sock yarn. I scoured the internet and found the perfect yarn for the lovely lizards on these socks. I ordered some Regia Fluormania in a greenish-yellow colorway and some Schachenmayr Regia Africa Style Stretch Uni & Color*4ply

Regia Flourmania Neon Leaf

from Hotyarns. I thought this might make a pair of bright colorful socks that reminded me of how lizards changed colors. Along with yarn I purchased a few different needles. The socks called for US #1 circulars so I ordered two 24-inch Addi Lace Circular needles, a size #1 9-inch HiyaHiya Circular needle, a size #2 pair of ChiaoGoo Twist Red Lace needle tips along with a 30-inch twist interchangeable cable, and last but not least a pair of Karbonz double pointed needles in size #1. I order so many types of needles because I wanted to not only try them out but I wasn't sure which one's I wanted to use and you can never have too many needles.

Now I think i'm ready to begin. I started my cast-on 4/20 as to qualify in the KAL the sock had to be cast-on in the month that particular sock was for.

I started cast-on with the 9-inch circular because I though it might might my life easier and it did my only concern was that my floats would be too tight. It took two try's to get the Baltic braid at the beginning of the sock and finally on the the sock. To make sure that my floats had lots of ease I made sure to keep the stitches on the right needle stretched which makes the floats longer. I started the instep and right heel on 4/22 and here I switched to the two 24-inch circulars. This section began the increases so I knew I would have needed more room. This was my first time knitting with two circular needles at a time. This is also my first time working with such a stretchy yarn, the black, and i'm not too sure about it but it's gonna have to work. On 4/24 I started tuning the heel, this had to be the scariest part for me...and I still don't know if I really did it right as it did not say wrap & turn it just said slip the stitch but in the back of the book it looks like wrap & turn for turning the heel. By 4/28 I was finish the heel and now on the sole and remainder of the instep. This part was pretty straight-forward as it was only following the chart.

Sock Front

Sock Back & Heel Before Turn

By 4/28 I was on the toe and by the next day I was finish with sock #1. Sock #2 took me about 5 days. I kept the i-cord for both socks for the end and completed that after the 2nd sock was finished. So by 5/3 both socks were finished and I couldn't be happier. And here are the finished socks.