the Sock Saga
I've mentioned several times that the green striped socks took longer than they should have. Now, just to make things even sillier, I'm going to write a blog entry that is longer than it needs to be about these socks.
First, the specs. These socks were knit from the toe up, following Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' instructions in her book, Simple Socks : Plain and Fancy
. The instructions were generally clear and easy to follow, although I had problems with the last row of the toe/heel instructions; I'm not sure I got it right, but I was able to fake my way through it.
The yarn was Mellenweit, wool/nylon blend. This was my first experience with self-striping yarns, and I enjoyed it.
I used size 1, size 2 and size 3 double pointed needles.
So here's what happened. Sock A: I worked the toe based on one set of measurements, and it came out too big. So I ripped it out and started again on fewer stitches. I worked the foot and ankle on size 1, then the rest of the leg on size 2. I worked more than halfway up the calf, took a quick weight of the sock and the remaining yarn, decided I was about halfway through the yarn, and bound off.
Sock B: worked as for sock A, except I realized that I was going to have a lot of yarn leftover. Not wanting to wast any, I worked as high as sock A, then wrapped the remaining yarn on my niddly noddy. I wound it into two equal balls, knit until I ran out of yarn and bound off. At this point I discovered that the top of the sock, especially the bind off edge, was a little too tight for comfort.
Back to sock A: I picked out the bind off, attached the remaining yarn and switched to size 3 needles (for greater ease at the top). I worked until I ran out of yarn and bound off. This sock had a nice fit at the top.
Back to sock B: picked out the bind off row, ripped back to match the point on sock A where I switched to size 3 needles, knit until I ran out of yarn and bound off.
At this point I figured I was done. Nope. Sock B, the one I just finished, was about an inch shorter than sock A. Fortunately, these being toe up socks, I could just pick out the bind off edge and rip to shorten, which I did. And bound off again. Done, finally.
I like these socks. They stay up reasonably well, especially considering how high up the leg they go. The stripes match very well until about 3/4 the way up the leg, where there is a break in the yarn on one sock which interrupts the stripe sequence. They wash well, although one of them came out of the wash with the velcro from a bib stuck to it (note to self: put things with velcro into a mesh wash bag).
So that's the saga of these silly socks. I like them, and if I ever do toe up ribbed socks again (which I probably will) I have a good sense of how much yarn I need.
I'm at the toe shaping on my first Jaywalker sock, need to keep going on those. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, though, so I'll probably fall asleep on the sofa again tonight!
First, the specs. These socks were knit from the toe up, following Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' instructions in her book, Simple Socks : Plain and Fancy
. The instructions were generally clear and easy to follow, although I had problems with the last row of the toe/heel instructions; I'm not sure I got it right, but I was able to fake my way through it.The yarn was Mellenweit, wool/nylon blend. This was my first experience with self-striping yarns, and I enjoyed it.
I used size 1, size 2 and size 3 double pointed needles.
So here's what happened. Sock A: I worked the toe based on one set of measurements, and it came out too big. So I ripped it out and started again on fewer stitches. I worked the foot and ankle on size 1, then the rest of the leg on size 2. I worked more than halfway up the calf, took a quick weight of the sock and the remaining yarn, decided I was about halfway through the yarn, and bound off.
Sock B: worked as for sock A, except I realized that I was going to have a lot of yarn leftover. Not wanting to wast any, I worked as high as sock A, then wrapped the remaining yarn on my niddly noddy. I wound it into two equal balls, knit until I ran out of yarn and bound off. At this point I discovered that the top of the sock, especially the bind off edge, was a little too tight for comfort.
Back to sock A: I picked out the bind off, attached the remaining yarn and switched to size 3 needles (for greater ease at the top). I worked until I ran out of yarn and bound off. This sock had a nice fit at the top.
Back to sock B: picked out the bind off row, ripped back to match the point on sock A where I switched to size 3 needles, knit until I ran out of yarn and bound off.
At this point I figured I was done. Nope. Sock B, the one I just finished, was about an inch shorter than sock A. Fortunately, these being toe up socks, I could just pick out the bind off edge and rip to shorten, which I did. And bound off again. Done, finally.
I like these socks. They stay up reasonably well, especially considering how high up the leg they go. The stripes match very well until about 3/4 the way up the leg, where there is a break in the yarn on one sock which interrupts the stripe sequence. They wash well, although one of them came out of the wash with the velcro from a bib stuck to it (note to self: put things with velcro into a mesh wash bag).
So that's the saga of these silly socks. I like them, and if I ever do toe up ribbed socks again (which I probably will) I have a good sense of how much yarn I need.
I'm at the toe shaping on my first Jaywalker sock, need to keep going on those. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, though, so I'll probably fall asleep on the sofa again tonight!
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