A Good Omen

What better way is there to start a long holiday weekend than by finishing socks?


They are still only distantly related, but I love them anyway. The chevron pattern pulls in more than I expected, and unlike ribbing? Does not stretch out again. These were 78 stitches on No. 1 needles- if I do this pattern again, I'll need to try and get a few more stitches in. (Chevron pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks, only I did them toe up.)

I used the afterthought heel, on the theory that it wouldn't interfere with the striping (ha!), and wound up ripping out my first one and adding a couple more stitches at the beginning to loosen it up around the ankle.

Next up! More socks:


I brainlessly neglected to check the weight on the yarn when I bought it (Is it possible that Cascade 220 superwash comes in both sock and worsted weight? I could have sworn that the yarn I used for socks last fall was lighter in weight.) But, this is New Hampshire, and heavy wool socks have their uses. So I cast on, and started the toe- checked gauge. Got what seemed like a reasonable number of stitches- 68, about what I recall doing last year. Okay, so far, so good.

Got through all the increases. These socks were humongous. Bigfoot, professional basketball team humongous. So I checked all the numbers- which said that they ought to be the right size. But measuring it on my foot clearly showed that this sock was going to be huge. I considered whether my feet might have shrunk overnight. Discarded that hypothesis on the grounds that my shoes still fit.

So I ripped back to the increases, and started knitting again. Still too big. Ripped back again. Now they were finally getting close. In a lighter weight yarn, I'd have just changed to a ribbing pattern to suck up the extra width, but I didn't want to do that in a heavy yarn. And this is superwash- I'm expecting that if anything, it will stretch when washed. I reduced stitches again- this time to 48. (Unheard of in my sock knitting career to date- my family runs to large feet.) But. They finally seem to be fitting. Or at least until I get half the foot done and discover they're too small! But if I actually make the socks on this number of stitches? These are going to fly!

So, that takes care of my knitting for the Memorial Day barbecue with friends tomorrow. But for Monday, I'll have to take some other project- because both the socks and the gray merino sweater are surprise gifts for people I'll be seeing. I suspect it will be yet another pair of socks, since I'm on an airplane later in the week, and therefore will need to have something I can knit on my specifically-procured-for-air-travel bamboo sock needles.