More Blue Socks

The marking is gearing up, so the knitting is gearing down.  Such is life.  Sometimes Dame Fortuna’s wheel is up, and sometimes it’s down.

The only knitting I’ve done recently is another pair of socks for Princess. She said they look like a storm, so they will be her Storm socks.  I decided to do the Intrepid Traveller pattern from the RSC club 2 years ago.  I had a skein of STR MW in Chapman Springs which I had already wound into a cake, so I decided to use that.  I’m on a bit of a blue / teal kick right now.

I started February 8 on sock #1 and finished it on February 9.  I started sock #2 on February 9, and then work and marking intervened, so I didn’t get it finished until the weekend (February 17).  Not bad for a pair of socks, though.

The pattern is easy to follow, and I realized it’s just a variation of the Skoosh socks which I’ve done several times.  It’s also like half of the pattern in Rubus Suberectus.  I really like it, but I’ve had my fill for now.  I’ll do something different for the next one.

Sock #1 pooled a bit, but sock #2 was more barber pole-y.

 

I did the Afshari gusset decrease from Hunter Hammersen. It’s so nice and tidy.  It makes me happy.  It’s just a standard decrease, but instead of doing it up by the instep, the decreases occur part way up the gusset.  For a 64 stitch sock, I count 15 stitches up from the middle of the sole and plunk in a stitch marker.  Then I do the decreases on the other side of the stitch marker until there is only 1 stitch left.  Remove the stitch marker and voila!  A nice tidy triangular gusset.

 

Given that I have about 9000 sock patterns, I am trying not to duplicate patterns too much.  I really want to do another Monkey.  I also want to do another Pomotamus because my Pomotamus was done in the early days and I used a yarn with no nylon. It has a huge hole in the middle of the instep. It’s not in any standard location; it’s just random.  A bunch of my socks have random holes. I’m not sure why.  It’s possibly dog-related or possibly just one of those things.

Last time I put on my Pomotami, I realized that they fit me perfectly and I love them. 

I decided to do the Ripple Weave pattern by Charlene Schurch.  It’s similar to Pomotamus, and that might satisfy my Pomotamus itch.  I have tried the pattern before but it has never worked out.

What I usually do with socks is chart the patterns into my graph paper knitting journal binder thing so that I can tote it around with me.  Paper and pen works for me; PDFs on the iPad don’t.  It’s how it is.

And after three attempts to chart it, I realized there is a mistake in the pattern.  So I decided to chart it my way and see if that works.

It’s not a big mistake, mind you.  But some of the yarn overs and ktbls are in the wrong place; instead of lining up in a nice diagonal line, there is a jog.  So of course when you go to knit it, it’s all wonky.

I did a slow burn when I figured that out.  It’s a Vogue pattern from 2006.  Surely a) someone on their staff is a knitter who proofreads and should have caught the mistake, or b) they could have at least done an erratum notification, given that the pattern was published 7 years ago or, most radical of all, c) they could have fixed the error and re-posted the pattern.

I get errata / replacement pattern notifications all the time on Ravelry.  In this day and age, it’s not rocket science.

And in terms of having to check for errata, once I’ve downloaded a pattern, why on earth would I go BACK to the original website?  It’s counter-intuitive. 

So I’m a little cranky at that.

On the brighter side, I decided to use alternating purl and knit long-tail cast on for the ribbing.  I used to do that way back in 2009 when I started knitting, but for some reason I forgot about it and have just been using the standard long-tail (which is essentially a knit stitch).

So I’ve started Ripple Weave. It’s on 2.25 mm needles and is 72 stitches around.  I have to say, I do like the alternating knit / purl cast on.  I’ve also been doing an extra long tail and weaving the tail in with my stitches for the first row.  It tightens up the gap between the start of the cast on row and the end of the cast on row, and it prevents me from having to actually weave the end in when I finish the sock.  Lazy much?

I think I might do the Afshari gusset again, and I might even do the twisted rib in the gusset. We’ll see.

The yarn is Skinny Bugga in Milkweed Beetle, so the colour is off in the photos.  It's a delicious deep tonal teal.  I love Skinny Bugga. It has a twist which is tighter than the Bugga twist.  And I'm finding that my Bugga socks get a little loose after they've been on my feet for a while.  The lower cashmere content means the Skinny Buggas are less soft, but I think they may look a little nicer. Good thing I have a zillion (ie. 58) skeins of it.  When I first started buying Sanguine Gryphon yarns, I could never catch the Bugga update, and often had to scramble to get Skinny Bugga. 

Because I’m on a yarn famine, there is nothing new to report other than that my fifth installment of the Tsock Tsarina sock club arrived.  This one is kind of a Mayan / Inca / Toltec / Aztec kind of a motif which looks way too complicated for me.  It came with a package of mix for Xoacalatl (which I think is Aztec for hot chocolate with chilies and cinnamon) and a little sun stitch marker.  The yarn is kind of a golden yellow ochre, which is probably my least favourite colour in terms of yarn.

 

I want to do Katniss, and I want to try cabling without a cable needle.  That will be the next cast-on.  I have a skein of HK Artisan in Daphne already wound, as well as a skein of HK Entice in Cabbage Rose. 

I leave you with the Three Stooges.

Comments

[Magda]

Cute socks, cuter dogs ;) Been out of town so not able to come to the gym - next weekend I'm in town but busy with school stuff on Saturday and plan to be "under the weather" on Sunday morning...hehe.... See you in the spring!