My first pair of these socks was three or four years ago, after I'd already been knitting for at least three years. I hesitated to try socks for the longest time because turning the heel looked so tricky, but it really wasn't. Essentially, you're just working in the round till you reach the heel, whereupon you work about half of the stitches flat for a couple of inches, pick up and knit to create the gussets (those little triangle-looking things on the sides of the sock), and then rejoin and work in the round again. The whole deal about creating the heel of the sock is just a matter of creating a little extra bit of fabric to accommodate the greater circumference of the foot there. It's like a little pocket to fit your heel into.
So I made my first pair of socks out of scrap yarn from a sweater and loved them, and then I made another pair from different scrap yarn. I wore both pairs incessantly and blew them out catastrophically beyond repair. Knitted socks, I would like to report, do not wear out the way store bought socks do. Rather than wearing thinner and thinner in the heel and eventually forming a small hole that grows larger gradually, they wear thin and then abruptly rip out all at once. Or at least mine do. This is most annoying to have happen when you try to put them on, but at least it saves the trouble of trying to fix them. There are ways of repairing/replacing the heels and toes, but I usually don't bother.
Anyway, there are many, many sock patterns out there in varying degrees of hideous. I have made a couple of striped pairs before and undoubtedly will again, but I really prefer solid colored socks. I prefer to avoid cables and lace in socks because I don't much like the feel of those things on my feet; that plus the fact that those socks always fall down when I put them on, and I don't like fiddling with them. And I suppose I'd rather put the effort of cables and lace into a sweater or hat or something where people would actually notice. Having said that, a sock is small enough that it's a great way to experiment with odd stitches and yarns.
Anyway, there will probably be other sock patterns up here eventually. For now, though, it's just the most basic one. It's a modified version of the Lion Brand pattern called Joan's Socks.
