A day off, not a moment wasted

I've been working on my first knitted sock since last weekend. I've been wanting to learn how to knit socks since November, but I hadn't been able to find an accessible class ... well, until I met Silver. This was THE BEST sock knitting tutorial I've been able to find after months of looking. This is my finished product:







Her instructions made grafting the toe so un-scary. I've heard that it's crazy hard, and I was really scared to try it, too. But with her step-by-step pictures and detailed instructions ... ta-da! I have a sock. I'm starting the next one immediately!

Is it cheating, though, that I knit it up in worsted yarn instead of fingering weight? I didn't have any sock yarn, and I didn't want to wait any longer to start making my first sock, so I just used some worsted tweed I had on hand. I think it really helped to learn on a chunkier yarn, though, because not only did it knit up faster, but the worsted weight was a lot easier to manage. I think it would have been much more frustrating to learn with fingering weight, especially since I've never knitted with a gauge that small.

Although it's a pretty big accomplishment for me to finish my first sock (and it fits!), that wasn't the only big thing today. I took today off for what my husband would call a religious holiday: Opening Day. Today was the first home game for the Rangers, and regrettably, we lost. But that doesn't mean we didn't have fun!



I did do a lot of sock knitting during the game to distract me from the Ranger's heinous performance against the Baltimore Orioles. I do have to say that Baltimore fans are some of the greatest. Nice, gracious folks. Rangers fans, in general, are spoil sports. Lots of booing from the cheap seats today, which is something I really can't stand. If you're going to heckle somebody, get creative. Dave is a wonderful heckler. He's been almost thrown out of ball games many times, but never thrown out. There is a line to genuinely great heckling.

Anyway, besides some spastic work e-mail when I got home, it was a great day. Time to get started on that second sock!