EXPERIMENTING...

with two different needle sizes.

The one in front is with size 3 double pointed needles,

and the one in back is size 4.

Size 3 won out for this particular basic sock pattern.

The strips and rust colored yarn were put in to make them look more sporty.

The multi colored yarn was a gift to myself from Buku Yarns in LaVerne, Ca.

I also bought another colorway and gifted it to Aileen for our Fiber class.

It was time for her to learn to knit socks.

She's almost done and they are gorgeous.

They will be featured in another post.

I washed these gently in the sink so they wouldn't shrink or pill,

even though they are a super wash merino yarn base.

Supposedly I can throw them in the washing machine

but I'm too much of a chicken to do that after spending hours knitting them.

But instead,

 they grew enormously by a good inch in each direction,

as well as becoming incredibly soft and limp from the gentle sink washing.

I freaked out because they were now way too large 

so I did something I'd never recommend,

 and tossed them in the dryer for a few mins.

Zilch...nada...still ginormous!!

No...

Next I laid them out to finish drying and the next day,

 miraculously,

 they were back to the perfect size I needed

(the ones on size 4 needles a bit larger).

I honestly don't understand what happened.

Just chalking it up to experience and a lesson learned.