Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Socks from stash!

I’ve been remiss in keeping you posted on my socks-in-progress. First, the so-called Danish Pool socks. This is yarn that Gretchen brought me back from a trip to Denmark a couple of years ago, and I knew it was gonna pool, so hence the name.

IMG_3089 S1 picked this yarn out of the sock cabinet. She liked that it was quite fine. She wanted springtime socks, with a shorter leg, and requested 4.5”. Handmade socks can nothing but custom, so 4.5” she got. The pooling was more like spiraling on the leg and foot, and really went wonko on the heel flap and gusset decrease.

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I’m glad to have this out of stash.

Next, a pair of socks for Pam. I directed her to the sock yarn cabinet when she was visiting a few weeks ago and told her to pick something. She really liked this ball of stripey Felici, but I only had one (50 g) ball. S1 suggested picking a contrast color for toe/heel/cuff in order to stretch the Felici. So that is what we’ve done. IMG_3255Please ignore the weeds in my patio. Because I wanted to use ALL the Felici, I worked these toe-up (not my usual preference). I chose the figure-8 cast-on and whirlpool toe from Cat Bordhi. The heel is a short-row heel that is a mashup between Cat Bordhi’s techniques and Charlene Schurch’s measurements. Do you like?

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I had to rip out the first heel I knit using the Schurch method. It had some crazy P3tog tbl maneuvers that drove me nuts – plus I didn’t like the resulting look. I got a quick shot before I frogged it:IMG_3173 I think it looks lumpy and surgical. Cat’s method is better. But I still think heel flaps are BEST!

When I got to the end of my Felici, I happened to be on that light green color. I hoped for more contrast between it and the yellow-ish cuff. That’s when I remembered that I had some yarn left over from the first ball (that became a hat), so I scrounged it up and kept going a bit. I think the resulting length is just perfect.

I’m nearing the end of the second Felici sock now. These may reach Pam just in time as she starts a new job. It’s like we planned a congratulatory gift!

2 comments:

  1. My new socks are perfect for summer socks. They don't match any clothes I own, but that has never bothered me very much...

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  2. Very nice! You're doing so much knitting -- and I know S1 will like these.

    I remember you tweeting about the P3tbl. Ick. I still have some green Felici that I've never used. Thanks for the reminder.

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