Saturday, September 24, 2011

One Sock for Ed

IMG_9907I haven’t posted in a while, but I have been knitting – honest!  One of my biggest challenges is photography.  We’ve had some funky weather here lately with loads of rain – complete with flash flooding and other fun things.  I came home at lunch on Friday to find the ceiling leaking on two floors PLUS water pouring into the basement through the walls.  Our ground is completely saturated.  Today was dry, so I tried to photo this sock for Ed.

I used the Stepping Stones pattern from Clara Parkes’ forthcoming The Knitter’s Book of Socks.  The pattern is written for worsted weight yarn, so I converted it.  Believe it or not, this is the first sock I’ve ever knit for a man.  I may have gone a bit overboard.  The leg is 8.5” long from the top of the heel flap to the cuff edge.  I knit the top of the leg on a 2.25 mm needle so it would be stretchier, then moved down to my usual 2.0 mm needle.IMG_9896

Notice how the stitch pattern changes slightly on the top of the foot.  I guess this is to make it comfier inside a shoe.

The yarn is Plucky Knitter’s Primo Fingering, a luscious 4-ply blend of 75/20/5% merino/cashmere/nylon with a very tight twist. The color is called M.A.S.H. Tent, and it is a wonderful brownish grey.  The subtle handpainted variations in color kept me entertained, but overall, this is a brown sock. The true color is like the picture against the white background (my front door).

I did a test fitting on Dan last weekend (that’s what you get when you come to brunch with a knitter).  Dan’s foot is 1/8” shorter than Ed’s, so I could do my toe decrease calculations perfectly on him.  But I digress.  The moment the sock came out of the bag, Dan said “oooooo, that is a nice sock!”  I consider that man-approval.  (And you know, complimenting my socks will end up getting some knit for you sooner or later, so it was a good move on Dan’s part.)

I have 41 grams of yarn remaining from the 101 gram skein, so I used about 60 grams.  Kris was right to insist we buy two.  But I have a good bit left for some other project down the road.

Now, the only problem/challenge is getting the second sock – knit by Kris – to match the first one.  At least a little.  Ah, gauge.

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful. And that Dan is a smart man. I think these will be perfect for Ed. And I guess if I can whine about how dry it is here, you're allowed to whine about the dampness. Both of us are stretching the bounds of sympathy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. For your readers' sake I attempted my version of the Ed sock (the left foot?) and discovered that, at least in contrast to Janelle, I am quite a tight knitter and the sock didn't even come close to matching up. (On a side note, all the knitters I've mentioned this to have been *shocked* that I am a "tight knitter" -- apparently I do not possess any of the other personality characteristics that correlate with tight knitting...but I digress.)

    I've ripped the knitting, soaked the yarn, and located some larger needles (2.50 this time 'round). I hope this one works...

    ReplyDelete