Socks and the Magic Loop

I am not a big fan of sock-knitting.

I know.  The HORROR!  Saying that to a group of knitters is blasphemy.  It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull.  Like telling a group of environmentalists that you don't recycle.

Like brushing your teeth at my mother's house with the bathroom door open.

Don't ask.

Anyway, where was I?  Oh, right.  Sock knitting.  Never been a big fan.  It's those skinny little DPN's.  It's that never-ending miniature knitting.  It's my short attention span, resulting in the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.  It's all of that and it's also that it has never resulted in a pair of socks that didn't felt into oblivion the first time I washed them.

But, my friend Ruth loves wool socks.  And she had two balls of sock yarn sitting around and no time to knit.

Enter Christmas and my lack of funds.  I offered to knit up the two pairs for her as a gift.

I am now, once again, a sock knitter.

Only this time, I am armed:

My arsenal is also growing to include these.  And these.

My recent foray into the world of lace knitting and the discovery of Addi Turbo Lace needles brought to light the fact that my hatred of circular needles was merely a hatred of CHEAP circular needles and that good quality stuff makes all the difference in the world.  So I'm taking the plunge.  I read the reviews and asked around and decided that KnitPicks have the right balance of price and quality that I need.

So, Ruth gave me a favoured pair of socks from her dresser and her husband's to use as templates and I await my delivery of needles in order to start (that's just a little test swatch sitting there):

More to follow...