Monday, August 31, 2009

Knitting on the road

While we were driving hither and yon by day and watching exhibition football and perpetual "Law and Order" reruns by night, some vacation knitting occurred. Not as much as I thought, just as not as many books as I expected were consumed (and we won't even mention the movies we did not watch), but knitting happened none the less.



Pattern: Sunday Swing socks from knitty
Size: Large
Yarn: Fey fine fingering from Spritely Goods in "Coffee Pot Rock" colorway
Needles: US1 in 9" circulars and DPNs
Modifications: The pattern called for a plain stockinette heel flap, but I used a plain slip-stitch one



The pattern is great for those variegated yarns that call for stockinette when you don't want to knit plain stockinette. Also, the pattern provides directions and charts for FOUR sizes of sock. Unheard of!



The gusset was longer than other sock patterns I have encountered, including an extra knit round for each decrease and knit pair of rounds. I did not know if this was a typo (and there is a typo on the line right above the gusset section) but I went with it anyway, curious to see if the result would fit my flat feet better. And I believe it does.



There is also a line missing in the toe section, the knit one round direction, so while this is a great pattern for beginning sock knitters, they might be thrown by this little error.



I think my "Coffee Pot Rock" socks look better than the ones in the pattern, but I'm not sure I would use Fey fine fingering again for socks; it's a bit too fine. Since I was testing the 9" circs with this project, I thought the problem I was having was due to the needles, but when I switched to the DPNs, I had the same problem. The yarn felt slick and drapey, difficult to keep on the needles, and yet the resulting socks feel great on my feet. So maybe I would.

Besides the socks, I finished the last pair of mittens of my nine-pair commitment to Mittnz, but have not yet woven in the ends. Much progress was made on the entrelac scarf, which I finished knitting tonight. It also needs ends woven in, and then some blocking.

And after buying all that yarn, I could not resist starting a new project with some of it.



Yes, folks, those are the toes for a pair of TOE-UP socks! The skein seems a bit skimpy, so I forced myself to once again make the effort to conquer toe-up. Hopefully, the heels don't do me in.

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