My first pair of socks!!

I finished my first pair of socks!  I'm hugely pleased with myself, even if they ARE full of mistakes!  

My first socks!

Once I'd finished, I read through a pattern of "normal" socks for DPNs and could actually make sense of it! The pattern for straight needles isn't that much different, then. I DO like the seam, which is very inventive and attractive and also VERY easy to do - also very quick. I was so impressed with it, I might use it as a feature the next time I knit a raglan-sleeved jersey. I was also surprised at how easy it was to "turn a heel" and knit a "gusset" (though to be honest, sitting here without the pattern, I can't actually remember what the gusset is!) The errors I made had nothing to do with the pattern.  I struggled to pick up stitches along the heel flap (oh, right, THAT's the gusset!).  As you can see in the picture below, I ended up with a horrible hole that I'm going to have to go back and mend somehow.  I also never had the right number of stitches on my needles - I really I can't work out why! Did I forget to decrease?  Usually I'm quite careful with these things! But it's all a matter of practice, small things I'm confident I'll get right over time.

As for the errors in the book, Knit Your Socks On Straight, there are still a few issues. It transpired there was no error for the heel flap, but the instructions aren't very clear, specially for the first basic sock, when the knitter is panicking slightly and needs to be lead carefully through the rapids. I can forgive a printing error but not one of the author's making - the star toe is NOT right. This point has been raised by other reviewers as well.  I might go back and give my review another star, though;  after all, it did give me confidence to actually knit a sock (or two)!  

For this pattern, I used Sirdar Escape DK which appears to be mostly discontinued, much to my disappointment as I really liked the colours and it's lovely to knit with. I've recently finished a jersey for my daughter (just as winter vanishes for another six months....) and have plenty more:  I bought a huge stash to play with!