My first pair for sockamania

I finally made it ! I knitted this pair of socks for the sockamania sockalong and the theme for february was influenced by Valentine. The pattern is called " simply love " and i really enjoyed knitting them. I must say though that i did not follow the pattern exactly as it was suggested for several reasons. the pattern called for a toe up knitting and i did not understand the explainations even if the tutorials we were referred to, were clear and precise. I am a visual, i need someone to show me and i guess i will have to give it a try at a sock workshop. I found several yarn stores in Montreal ( I live 45km from the big city ) offering toe up workshop, so maybe one day, if it ever stops snowing, i may brave the crazy highway traffic and head for the crowed city life. I live in the countryside, i am not used to traffic and crowdy places. I love going to the city once in a while, it is the driving that makes me so nervous. But i could always take the train or the metro, it would be less stressfull and i could even knit! That is not such a bad idea after all. The second reason for not knitting the socks exactly the same was for the number of stitches. The pattern called for 64 stitches which for me was way too big. ( I have very small feet ) In reducing my stich count to 56, i could not make the heart pattern all around the leg, so i only included the heart pattern on the front. It still looks pretty but now that my pair is finished, i see that i could have followed the pattern if i had reduced my needle size. But being part a knitting community gives me the opportunity to learn. I am still feeling very proud of my accomplishment. As a teen ( soooo long ago ) i knitted several pairs of big woolen socks, but had forgotten all about sock knitting. I had never tried knitting with such fine yarn and small needles. And i never thought i would managed on my own with just a basic pattern i found on the internet. I realized once you do the heel part, the rest is easy. I know i still have a lot to learn on sock knitting as there are so many techniques, but i guess that once you succeed in doing a basic pattern, you can learn anything ! Sock knitting is so much fun ! I have two more pairs on the needles at the moment and sockamania will be offering it's march pattern coming this week ! I think my daughters will inherit a few pairs.