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August 11, 2003
Koigu Sock
I was up at my parents' cabin this weekend, and although I brought along the Shapely Tank to finish up, I decided to start a pair of Koigu socks instead (more about the Tank later.) Oooh, do I love this yarn. It's almost too good for socks.
I thought about doing a toe-up sock, but I really like the edge that the German Twisted Cast-on gives, and I don't mind grafting the toe, so I decided to stick with the leg-down method. I also tried a short-row heel (without a heel flap), but that kind of heel is a lot smaller than my regular heel. The ribbing - which I am extending down to the toe - came down way too far into the heel area. So then I tried a heel flap without the slip-stitch reinforcing. It looked very nice, but just seemed too thin. So I ripped out that heel and went with the regular ole' heel flap. I would be very sad if these socks wore out prematurely because I failed to reinforce the heel. (I've only started knitting socks since late this spring, so I've had very little opportunity to actually wear them. I have no idea how they will hold up.)
So here it is, with the third heel attempt being the one I'm sticking with (this photo really mutilates the beautiful Koigu colors - the actual colorway includes a lot more purples, blues and greens than what this miserable photo shows):
I was knitting the Shapely Tank only because I signed on for the Knitalong group at yahoogroups. I've since decided that this group isn't for me. Their next project is a felted bag - I just finished one and am ready to move on to something else. I don't really need to move with the herd in order to be satisfied with what I've chosen to do.
And that Shapely Tank has been a real bugger. Last Thursday night, I was finishing the straps on the back side. I laid the back on top of the front to see how things matched up. I had already bound off the stitches on one of the back straps, but it was too long. So I picked up the front side by mistake and pulled out a couple of rows and only then realized that I was working on the wrong piece. That's what I get for knitting too late at night. And that's what I get for not counting rows and writing it down. So now I'm mad at the whole thing and I will have to have an attitude adjustment before I get it out and work on it again.