Fun with Fan Lace

So, after concluding what I *should* do is knit more on the cardigan, I discovered that one of the cable panels is reversed, a couple of repetitions back. So that's been set aside until I have an hour when my brain is not fried to drop the panel- all sixteen stitches- back thirty or so rows and fix it.

In the meantime, I've been playing with the fan lace socks. (Did that sound like an excuse? Because it totally is an excuse. I really wanted to knit the socks.)

I'm not so sure the pattern shows up well in the variegated yarn, but I like them anyway. (Besides, small mistakes? Impossible to see.)


I've just reached the heel (the turning point, in fact).


I really do like the look of the short-row heel. I find it fussier than a heel flap, but it suits this sock better, I think.


The yarn is Trekking XXL colorway 186, and the heel photo is closest to the actual color, though it's a bit darker than it looks here.

Now I haven't blown off *everything* for the socks- I'm accumulating a nice pile of finished drapes (they'd make a boring photo though), and am hopeful of finishing up that project before the end of the month.

And tomorrow and Saturday I'm off to a science fiction convention, which should offer a fair bit of knitting time while listening to things.

Farewell to the Red Earls

As I expected, I needed to pull yarn from the first sock to finish the second and then rip back another inch and redo it in ribbing to get the socks the same length. They finished a tad shorter than I would have preferred, but I'd like to hold off on getting any more yarn until I have some feedback on the wearability. Initial reports say the first pair are in heavy rotation and holding up better than the commercial wool socks that were also new at Christmas.


I'm also eager to see if there are any differences in the various constructions after wearing- in three pairs of socks, I have done three toes (kitchenered, and two toe-up configurations with nylon reinforcement) and three heels (top down with flap and heel stitch, short row heel and toe up with a heel flap, also with a heel stitch).


However, I don't see any way to improve on the yarn utilization. I came pretty close to using it all- this was what was left:


So now the question is, what next? I'm seriously tempted by the thought of more socks. I have two pairs left in queue- the fan lace socks I've already started, and the ball of sock yarn I got at Webs. However, I think I need to make some headway on the cardigan. That one has a deadline, after all. So- sweater at home and fan lace socks for a small project to take with me when I might need to wait somewhere.

A Perfect World

In a perfect world, I would not have come down with an annoying head cold just before the weekend.

In a perfect world, said weekend would not have been entirely eaten by a work project (with a short break Sunday for visiting with family).

In a perfect world, I wouldn't have gotten two inches into the second Red Earl sock and discovered that (unlike the first sock) my left hand twists did not twist left, but instead were copycatting the right hand twists, which were pointed in the right direction. I hate it when that happens. (I fixed it. I have this unreasonable idea that the second sock should match the first one. Weird, I know.)

Despite the manifest imperfection of the universe, there was some progress made:

You'll note that I haven't bound off the first sock. That's so if (when) I run out of yarn, I can just pick up the tail end, knit (pulling yarn from the first sock) until they're both the same length. If that happens, I'll have to reknit a bit of ribbing, but it's a small price to pay for the satisfaction of using *all* the yarn.

And in other positive things, I was comforted in my affliction (this is the lapside view):


There was also a great deal of Mexican food (purely therapeutic, I assure you). And tomorrow the weather is expected to be crappy, with a side order of extra crappy. So I'm thinking that either a) it won't be that bad, and my plans to go to karate practice will be executed on schedule or b) it will be a good evening to blow off karate and spend knitting, reading and sewing drape.

In the absence of perfection, I'm trying to cultivate a glass-half-full attitude.