New sock project

I have been a bit stalled on my home knitting projects lately. It's because I haven't finished the Must Have Cardigan, and I feel like I shouldn't start anything new until that's done. But that means I don't knit so much. Bad. What happened to the Must Have? What usually happens in the spring... I got a huge sinus infection and my head wasn't clear for weeks and weeks. I couldn't make the decisions I needed to make about buttonband construction while not thinking clearly, and so the project stalled. The same thing happened last year with the Rogue - the finishing didn't happen until June. I will return to it ... soon.

So here is a new sock project, Padded Footlets (sorry, Ravelry link) from Favorite Socks. I've knit a couple of patterns from this book: Uptown Boot Socks (please excuse poor partnering of yarn and pattern) and Undulating Rib Socks (which I liked so much that I knit them a second time). Time for a new one. S1 went through my copy of Favorite Socks when I first got it and left little post-it notes about what she liked and didn't. She liked this one, which surprised me. It has a lace pattern. But, as Gretchen says, it's not "lacy lace," which probably explains the attraction. This is a short sock - a good candidate for summer and early fall. The book shows the sock knit in a nice olive green with orange accent, and I happened to have similar yarn in my stash. Here it is so far:

This sock has some interesting details. First, the lace pattern first appears on the outside edges of the heel flap. It is also featured on the top of the sock. The little orange stripe is on the top of the cuff and will appear again close to the tip of the toe. And the sole of the sock is knit with a double strand of yarn (that's the "padded" part).

I was a little concerned about the padded sole, since the pattern does not call for the needle size to change. Socks are normally knit pretty tightly - and now the designer wants me to cram in double the yarn width on the same needles? Ouch! I consulted Ravelry to find out more about this and also to check for errata. There were errata. But the errata listed were for the version of the pattern that originally appeared in the magazine back in the Summer 2005 issue of IK. The IK publishing website lists a different errata for the version in the book. Now, this was just plain annoying. I had to cross check them to make sure I had everything straightened out. I don't know exactly when IK figured out that the magazine version had a mistake in it - was it before the book was published? Did they forget to change the pattern in the book? Mild grrr.

I decided to dive in and just knit the sock. S1 wanted to lengthen the cuff just a little bit (6 rounds) so it wouldn't get sucked down into her shoe. Then I began the heel flap instructions. These are written in the most bizarre way. This flap is extra long, and the doublestranding of the yarn begins about 6 rows before the bottom of the flap. You can probably see where that happens. There are also some short rows toward the bottom of the flap (the kind where you wrap and turn, then pick up the wraps later). THEN you do the heel turn with the other kind of short rows (the ones where you don't pick up any wraps). Crikey!

The sock is really hard to knit with 2 strands of yarn - my hands ached immediately. I went back to Ravelry and read people's comments. The vast majority of them said "forget the padded sole - just do regular" and "I would knit this again, but without the padded sole" and "this pattern is written in an unnecessarily complex way." A small minority said "why would you avoid the padded sole - that is the most interesting and unique thing about these socks!" I sided with the majority on this one. I dropped the second strand as soon as I resumed knitting in the round. I have also stopped reading the pattern and am just completing this in my usual way.

This sock, despite being knit over only 58 stitches, might be a little big. I need to knit more in order to know for sure. I'm knitting it on 2.25 mm needles. I swatched on both 2.0 and 2.25, and oddly, I got the same gauge (how can this be?!?). I chose to go with the bigger ones because of the double-stranding issue. But if the resulting sock is a little baggy, I'll rip it all out and begin again on 2.0 needles and just knit it in my typical way, incorporating this lace design into the sock.

Whew! It can be exhausting to be in my head. If you're still reading, go have a drink. You deserve it.

I'm hoping to get my next pair of office socks started this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

FO: Another Autumnal Pair of Socks

I've been working on my latest pair of "office socks" (meaning, they're knit at the office, not necessarily worn at the office, although they often are) since late April, but I never blogged about them. I finished them during a meeting yesterday. Here they are:

The stitch pattern here is Roza's Socks, a Grumperina design from the Spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits, but I applied it to my basic sock pattern. Leery of casting on too many and having a saggy sock, I lowballed the number this time and cast on only 66. These were knit from the cuff down, with a standard slipped-stitch heel (reinforced, of course, the Cat Bordhi way) and a star toe.

I bought this yarn at The Mannings after S1 declared that these socks were holding up the best of any socks I had ever knit her. The yarn, of course, was Trekking XXL (in an unusual self-striping pattern - not at all typical XXL) and those socks were the first ones I ever knit on 2mm needles. I'm now addicted to 2mm needles, which produce (for me) a firm fabric that holds up well in socks.

Thanks in part to my new, lower cast-on number, I have plenty of yarn left - 27 grams! (I've been paranoid about running out after a couple of unfortunate incidents earlier this year.) I probably could have knit the cuff a bit longer on these, but they are quite nice the way they are. These will be so warm and cozy in the fall and winter.

Trekking XXL, I will knit with you again! Have you heard about the new Zauberball Crazy sock yarn? It seems to be constructed a lot like Trekking XXL, but with longer colorblocks (long like Noro). I might pick up a ball of that if I see it.

Can we talk about my (sock) issues?

People, I need help with my sock issues. These are the Paca Peds harvest socks I've been working on for a while. Remember? I'm almost done with the first ball of yarn and here is what they look like:

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to rip back. Why? Lemme 'splain:

1. The slipped-stitch pattern makes for a very dense fabric that will wear like iron but doesn't stretch much at all. The sock is tight.
2. If the sock fit perfectly, that might not be a problem. But since I'm not ace at the toe-up short-row heel sock construction, I made the foot too long. My instructions said to knit the foot until it reaches the ankle bone. I stopped short of my ankle bone because the foot just seemed so long, but the food was still nearly an inch too long. So these became Sharon's socks (that's her foot pictured).
3. Then I put on the short-row heel. I decided that I would not attempt to knit this in pattern but just do a plain stockinette short-row heel. But stockinette fabric seems so flimsy compared to the strength of the slipped stitch pattern (its official name is "faceted rib"), and the heel is the hardest wearing part of the sock, so I wanted to reinforce it. So I got some reinforcement thread (my LYS stocks Fortissima in 5 g packages and I bought the "pale brown" to blend in). I've never used this before. The mending yarn is much thinner than the sock yarn, but I didn't change needle sizes when I began double-stranding the heel. Consequently, the heel was really difficult to knit. What do you think about how the light brown blended in with the main sock yarn? (see photo below) I think it's less noticeable in person than in the photo.
4. The sock is really difficult to get on. I think this is because (a) the fabric of the foot does not stretch, and (b) the foot of a toe-up short-row heel sock is the same circumference all the way to the heel. I've only knit this construction a few times, but I'm thinking that it is not for me. Human feet get bigger between the arch and the heel, and socks should do that, too. When I knit cuff-down socks, the decreases after the flap heel cover that part of the foot very nicely. There is no similar change in sock circumference when you knit the toe-up short-row heel sock. I switched to the next size needle (2.25 mm) at some point in the cuff to make it easier to get on, but it didn't help much.
5. And finally, I'm almost out of yarn. I anticipated this would happen since the slipped stitch pattern eats up more yarn per linear inch than a regular one, and I figured I would have to finish the cuff in a contrasting yarn. I even picked one out of my stash. But now I'm not so excited about the look.
   

I think that covers my issues. I had such high hopes for these socks. I ripped them back once already to get them right, but I still haven't gotten them right. I think I'd better let these rest a bit.

In an attempt to recover my sock mojo, yesterday I cast on for Katie's birthday socks using some yarn that Kristina bought a couple years ago at MDSW. She brought it with her on her last trip in order to split one 100 g skein into 2 equal balls (using my scale). But I could tell that she wasn't excited about knitting it. Try as I might, I have not been successful in giving her the sock bug. I offered to knit socks for Katie out of the yarn. Her third birthday is coming up, and little girls often get socks from me for their 3rd birthdays. I'm doing the Coriolis sock from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book 1. It's a toe-up sock, but it has plenty of expansion rounds before the heel. Clearly I need to explore this type of construction more if I'm going to knit socks toe-up. [Side note: Have you seen Gretchen's Coriolis-in-progress? It looks gorgeous! Great yarn choice for that pattern.]

Kristina, is that Tess sock yarn? I'm not even sure! Photo coming next time...

Ahhhhhhh-tumn

Remember when I justified that Paca-Peds yarn I bought at Knitters' Day Out by saying that it reminded me of a certain kind of turning leaf here in PA where I live?

Ahhhhhhhhh.........

Harvest Socks

Note: OOPS! I wondered why no one had commented on this post. It's because I posted it to my book group blog, not my knitting blog. Does that tell you how crazy my week was last week? I just now noticed it myself. So, here is a bit of a time machine, taking you all the way back to last Friday, 10/10.

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I have been wrestling with this sock yarn for about a week, but I think I've finally got it under control. This is a recent acquisition, Paca Peds (alpaca-wool-nylon) in color "Harvest." The colors are a little less bright than in this photo. By the time I got outside this evening, it was dark enough that the flash went off.

Because I ran out of yarn on the last pair of socks, I decided to do these toe up. I divided my big hank into 2 equal balls. I wanted to use Charlene Schurch's "faceted rib" stitch pattern, which contains slipped stitches on 2 out of 4 rows. I thought this would help prevent pooling in this variegated yarn. I think it does!

But... the first time I started these socks, I did the stitch pattern on the top and plain stockinette on the bottom. Because of the slipped stitches, the top fabric was much denser - and shorter - than the bottom. About an inch into the pattern, the sole of the sock was 50% longer than the top. I thought this would cause a problem by the time I got to the heel.

In the end, I used the stitch pattern as written on the top: And I modified it slightly for the sole. Here's the sole. See the difference? No purl bumps.

It's pretty subtle.... I went to an all-day library meeting today, so I got lots of knitting done.

That's Cat Bordhi's whirlpool toe, which was begun with a figure-8 cast-on. I love that beginning. I used it for both pairs of my sidestream socks (red for S, green for me).