We be wrappin’
Don’t ya like it when the girls
shape somefin’?
Knitta don’t pull nothin’ (That’s right)
We ain’t froggin’
We just perlin’ an’ knittin’
like it ain’t nothing wrong
Get ya sock on (we be turnin’)
Ah, we be wrappin’ (we be knittin’)
Yeah ya (we be wrappin’ we be knittin’)

[rare extra chorus to Ice Cube’s We Be Clubbin’]

I turned my first sock heel! I did rip it out three times before making it relatively free of holes in the heel. These are knit top down in what I figured out is a fingering weight german sock yarn by Regia (much smaller than what is detailed for the Tech Guy Socks pattern I semi-followed). I ended up following the wrapping technique detailed in Vogue Knitting on page 186 and not the PGR yarnover method. I don’t own that book by PGR, nor have I ever knit socks, and I must say that without the incredible tutorial on misocrafty, I wouldn’t have had the faintest idea how to turn the heel. I recommend arming yourself with both the Vogue book and the misocrafty tutorial before commencing. If I do attempt the PGR method, I will use this other tutorial with photos for turning a heel. As I mentioned, the weight of the yarn is very very fine and I would recommend using sport weight sock yarn for the Tech Guy Socks pattern, not fingering as I did. I cast on 60 stitches on metric size 3.0 mm (U.S. size 2) double pointed aluminum needles, but the sock barely fits my S.O., 64 stitches would have been better with this extremely fine yarn.

In celebration of my successful wrappin’ and heel turnin’, I joined a KAL (for those of you geeks reading my blog, KAL == KnitALong) where each member knits one pair of socks a month for six months and blogs about it. The KAL, SAM3 (SAM == Sock A Month), is located here. I even grabbed some superwash hand-dyed sock yarn from fearless fibers for the next three pairs. Oh, and I bet you didn’t know Ice Cube was into fiber arts.