May socks are finished!
In an effort to destash some of my personal yarn, I used yarn not offered in the shop (GASP!!!).
At Knitting Camp last summer, I took the opportunity to purchase some of that special yarn Elizabeth Zimmermann spoke of and used in her knitting, e.g., unspun Icelandic, Quebecoise, Rangeley, Canadian Regal, and Guernsey. I’ve not used any of them, partially because I just haven’t, and partially because they’re a little coarse to work with. Sorry, Elizabeth, they just are. If you don’t believe me, feel them for yourself.
In The Opinionated Knitters, EZ offers several designs for awesome two-color knee-high socks which Meg, her daughter, also offers in her book, Meg Swansen’s Knitting.
I knew I wanted to knit the socks, but didn’t look at the pattern carefully enough to realize that I didn’t buy the right gauge yarn. The 5-ply guernsey I had planned to use was much too thick. Though the colors looked the same, my guernsey was a sportweight instead of fingering. So, I came up with something else.
As always, I casted on for the toe and began spiraling a simple stripe up along the foot and leg. This 2×2 striping was offset by moving the color a stitch over on each new round. It was simple enough to not have to think but still produced an interesting look.
I stopped the spiral temporarily at the end of the foot to work a short row heel. To give the heel section a bit more reinforcement, I worked it in the slip1, knit1 pattern typically done for the heel flap when doing cuff-down socks.
Once reaching the bottom of the calf muscle, I had to take a bit of a pause to figure out how to increase up around the calf while maintaining the pattern. Funny how things come to you at the oddest hour. Usually, my “oh, duh” moments come when I wake in the middle of the night to toss to the other side. This “oh, duh” moment came while I was watching mindless tv. It just came, I grabbed the socks, tested it, and it worked! It doesn’t look too bad.
Overall, I’m thrilled with them. The fitting is incredible, and given that the picture was just taken, in the heat of St. Louis May, they are incredibly warm.
3 Comments
Oooh. I like them what fun!
They do look pretty good. I was actually very tempted to buy a sock book by Cat Bordhi the other day because I’ve seen her youtube videos and liked her techniques. A lot of the socks she had were pretty intriguing but I talked myself out of it because I would never wear any of them.
Who says you need to knit what Cat Bordhi knits.