I have decided to knit my sister a pair of socks for Christmas. I am over half way done with the first one and so far so good.

I am using the ‘pippi knee stocking’ pattern from the Stitch andBitch book. I changed the striping pattern to that it alternate grey with the two purples but other than that I am sticking to the directions. I practiced turning the heal with some scrap yarn successfully so I am hopeful that I won’t screw these up too bad either

I have discovered that I enjoy knitting ‘in the round’ as its called. I also like the double pointed needles. I found a whole set of sizes 0-12 for only $16 on Amazon. And I think I can buy some needle protectors and make some ghetto single pointed needles. That means I never have to buy needles again! Unless I decide to knit something requiring a really gigantic needle. But I much prefer the tight stitched look of smaller needles so that will probably never happen.

Two problems I have had with the ’round knitting’: 1. When I am casting on my stiches seem to disappear. I will count and recount and then the next row will be missing one. I don’t get it. So I just add 1 more than I think I need when casting on.

2. The flow of my stitches looks crooked.. like everything is diagonally stretched or something. I haven’t figured out a solution for this besides ‘deal with it’.