Hand Knit Slouch Socks Finish

Hey everyone, Sunday has rolled around again and that means it's time to share what crafty thing I have been up to. However I would like to start this post with an update on my new blogging home. Last week I set up the hosting and made a start on the layout of the new website. I have kept it quite simple for now but there will be changes to it over the coming months, as I get to grips with the Wordpress software. I would love some feedback from my awesome readers on it, so if you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think, link here.

So now that is out of the way, we can get back to the fun stuff. While in my local craft shop recently I found a gorgeous yarn call Tivoli Haven. It is super chunky and soft so I bought a couple of balls to make some nice comfie slouch socks. However having gotten my yarn I couldn't find any patterns online that used Aran (8wpi) weight with 8mm needles. At first I was despondent but then I decided I could make them myself, if I knew how to calculate the number of cast on stitches I needed!

As it turned out there was a bit more to it than that, especially in the heel turn and the toe decreases but all I needed to know first was how to figure out the number of cast on stitches. Luckily the internet came to the rescue and I found  great instructions on how to work this out, here.

So I now knew the cast on, based on the yarn gauge and foot size, was 24 stitches. I was delighted, so I made a start on my ribbing. I decided to go with 2x2 but I think it would have been better to use 1x1 instead, due to the size of the needles.

These socks knit up extremely quickly and before I knew it I had the the length I wanted and I needed to do the heel flap. So back to the internet I went again to find out how long this should be. I discovered another great site called Hands Occupied, which I would end up using for the rest of the math on this project. Soon I had one fully completed sock, I felt so proud. The second sock was just a matter of repeating the same steps, luckily I had kept notes for each stage on the Knit Tink app, so it was very straight forward.

Now I am the owner of a crazy comfortable pair of slouch socks, that have been hardly off my feet since they came off the blockers. If I could get away with it I would wear these to work! I was so delighted with the result that I am now making another pair for my OH in earth tone yarn. I can't wait to finish them for him.

This was a tricky project and I did make a few mistakes. When picking up the gusset stitches on one of the socks I didn't pick up one of them correctly and there is a slight hole. The other issue is with the gusset size, I think I made the heel flap a bit too long and picked up too many stitches for my size feet, making them a slightly too big. This is something I will research, but for now the fact that they are a bit large doesn't really matter.

So that's it for my super comfortable slouch hand-knit socks, what do you think? Would you ever try to make something without a pattern? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.