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Lesson 3: Cast On, Cuff, Leg
You'll soon find out that I'm no great shakes when it comes to digital photography. There are many wonderful knitting resources on the internet written by folks who are much better with their cameras, so I'm going to point you to external websites for descriptions of some techniques used in the Basic Ribbed Sock pattern.
We're going to start our socks with the Twisted German cast on. This is a very stretchy cast on that forms a tidy and sturdy edge, making it ideal for socks knitted from the cuff down. You can find some excellent photographs of the Twisted German cast on here:
knitting.about.com/library/bltgcaston.htm
community.webshots.com/album/45031944ivzfxu (same photos, no popups)
Practice a bit if this method is new to you, then cast on C stitches. When you are done, you should now have something that looks like this:
Join, being careful not to twist the stitches, then begin your ribbing pattern. Mark your first stitch with a marker or piece of yarn; this is the beginning of the round.
Arrange your stitches on your needles in any way that suits you. When knitting ribbing, I like to start each needle with knit stitches and end with purl stitches. I used 4 dpns to knit my sock, so I put 20 stitches (5 repeats of k2p2) on each of 3 needles.
Here's what my sock looked like after about 20 rounds:
Continue working the ribbing pattern for the number of rounds we figured in Lesson 2. The next Lesson picks up when you are ready to begin the last round of the leg of your sock.