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Specs:
Pattern: “January” from Needle Beetle’s “Winter” collection
Yarn: KnitPicks Essential sock yarn (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon) in “Dusk” and Regia sock yarn (same content) in White.
Needles: Magic loop on KnitPicks classic circular, size 1
Started: early January 2007
Finished: January 21, 2007
Pattern Modifications:
I worked at a slightly larger gauge than recommended, to accomodate my gigantically wide feet without changing the stitch count, since the pattern repeat was large enough that to add an entire pattern repeat wouldn’t be feasible. I used 1×1 twisted ribbing rather than the 2×2 ribbing suggested. I omitted the stripe in the ribbing. I subbed in a short-row heel and short-row toe, instead of the flap heel and standard decrease toe in the pattern. I like short cuffs, so I only used two pattern repeats instead of the full three-repeat chart for the leg. Oh yeah – and instead of a plain foot with just three tiny patterned stripes, I kept the pattern going the entire way down the foot. More on that later.
In fact… really all I used the pattern for was the chart. That said, it was a lovely chart, easy to follow, and I really like the way the pattern came out. I will definitely be using Needle Beetle’s patterns again!
Comments:
I love stranding.
This was my first stranded sock (third stranded pattern ever – I’ve done two hats before). I really like how it came out.
I’d heard that gauge tends to be tighter on stranded knitting than on plain knitting, and I’d heard a suggestion to go down a size on plain rows or up a size on stranded rows to compensate for this. I never had the presence of mind to have my size 0’s available for the plain rows, so instead I just concentrated on knitting tightly on the plain rows and loosely on the stranded rows.
I miscalculated the length of the foot. I’d sort of guesstimated that three repeats of the pattern would make the foot the right length, and I was pretty close – but I’d forgotten the border pattern, and when I got there I realized that it really wouldn’t look finished without that border pattern. I realized this while KIPing at a dance festival, of all places, and this was the only project I had with me. And my feet hurt, so I couldn’t just dance – I had to figure it out!
I knew I had to start the toe shaping in pattern. I knew it would be easier to do standard decrease toe shaping. But… there was a girl there who saw me knitting and showed me her very first sock-in-progress, which she was making up as she went along. She asked me for advice on the heel. I happened to be wearing my “pair” of green cabled socks – one is Cablenet, with a flap-style heel (because I just had to do the extraspicy cabled flap), and one is Bayerische, with my usual short-row heel subbed in. So I showed her the two heels, and she wanted to learn a short-row heel. And of course, how better to show a short-row heel than to demonstrate it with the toe I’d just come to, especially since I tend to like short-row toes better than standard decreased toes, anyway?
So I made a short-row toe, with the first (and of course, last) ten rows still in stranded pattern. You can kind of see it in this picture.
And of course I had to fudge the pattern at the sides, but I don’t think it came out too badly (although I do need to stop taking pictures on my red sheets…):
Anyway. I love this pattern.. I love this sock… I think I’ll wear it with my Snowflake Lace sock, which I made in the same Dusk yarn. Unless the whole stranding vs. lace thing turns out to be too different in weight – we’ll see.
More pictures!
