Fiber Musings

Specs:
Yarn: 3-ply handspun; Superwash Merino from Crown Mountain Farm in “Say A Little Prayer” colorway (retired colorway).
Needles: US Size 0 (2.00 mm)
Gauge: 7.5 spi
Pattern: My generic toe up socks, with 2×2 ribbing on top and up the leg; 64 sts.

Why Bobby Socks? I intend to wear these with the cuff rolled down. I’m showing it this way because the socks seem so oddly formed — very skinny and long. As I was knitting it, I kept thinking, “There is no way that this will fit. The foot is too long!”, even though I fitted the sock as I went to determine the location of the heel. That’s what 2×2 ribbing does. It pulls it up nice and snug.

This is a good thing to remember if you are making socks for someone as a gift. The 2×2 rib is very forgiving.

I’m now happy with the heel. I know why it does what it does on the k2tog side. My forward yarn-over is much looser than my backwards yarn-over, and the k2tog is loosey goosey, causing the ugliness. I fixed this by slipping the yarn-over stitch while maintaining the twist in the stitch. The twist tightens everything up quite nicely. Yes, the 2 sides do not match, but that’s only under close scrutiny. No one will be looking at my foot that closely, I assure you. If they do, they might get a swift kick in the nose.

As I was knitting the leg on the second sock, I realized that this is a perfect set up for the blueberry waffle pattern. (2 rows of 2×2 ribbing, followed by 2 rows plain stockinette.) I will have to try this next time, since I’ve never made the blueberry waffle socks before. I would most likely only do this on the leg portion of the sock, since I don’t really like any type of patterning on top of my foot. Even ribbing bothers me. I’m a princess when it comes to my socks.

I still have close to a pound of this colorway, spun in various weights: 2 ply DK, and 3 ply fingering. The 3 ply from the 8 oz. that I originally bought for socks (this pair and the tennis socks), and the remainder of the 1.5 pounds I spun for the baby blanket. While I love the spring green, I am getting a bit weary of all it. 3 projects out of the same yarn/color is a bit over the top. I can’t bear to think about a 4th or a 5th. I think I will be sending the remainder of this yarn to Kim, who is expecting a baby this summer. Since the baby room is Jungle themed, perhaps she can do something with the green. (Kim, are you interested?)

1 Comment »

on 31 Mar 2008 at 20:01 Kim

Lovely socks! I’m curious what your basic sock recipe is, especially when you turn the heels. My basic sock recipe (and I’ll be honest… it’s quite basic) has gotten me by quite happily thus far, but I’m getting bored. And tired of the s1-k1 heel flap. Too chunky. Any recommendations?

If you’re serious about needing a break from the beautiful green yarn, I’d love to adopt it! (Green is my favorite color in the entire world, and it would totally match the nursery theme. Fun!) Thanks also for your color recommendations for the Jungla– we’re looking at paint swatches to try and match what you recommended since it looked great (and solved the monkey problem, and the lion issue as well). Some day remind me to tell you about the debaucle that happened when we tried to “fix” the blue sky, though… yikes.