Fear of Socks

Why am I sooo afraid of these socks? Last night I started a preemie hat for the Kiwanis Wallis Center and all I could think about was the damn socks. It probably has to do with my whole avoidance issue with my sister right now since the socks are for her. Hmmm. Maybe I should make different socks. That's it! I'll make Jaywalkers or Monkeys or SOMETHING other than my original plan. I've seen so many great patterns on ravelry, I'm sure I can get motivated somewhere to knit something with some kind of pretty string. It's daunting you know. "Her socks are prettier than my socks" "My socks are so plain" "Everyone will laugh at my socks". You get the picture.

Meanwhile, ravelry continues to fascinate me. Just photographing and logging in my inventory is overwhelming, and by no means do I have a lot of stuff. I've seen the stash confessions of the knitters , some of whom I admire from afar. Geez! It's embarrassing to look at my pitiful personal collection. I don't really count the donated yarn, although some of it is nice for acrylic. I like to keep the two separate, and I never use the donated yarn for personal projects. I have expanded out of my original cupboard though :) something I never thought would happen. I blame Maryland Sheep and Wool for that. I HAD to have better storage for the good stuff than wedging all of it into the top shelf. I was worried about damaging the fibers. Gotta protect the investment don'tcha know.

::wink wink, nudge nudge::

Anyway. This morning ravelry won't load. The site must be down for repair. Waaaah! I'm stamping my little knitter's foot and pouting my little knitter's lower lip. After checking about every half hour (oh my, she is obsessed isn't she) I just checked the link by hand entering ravelry.com in the browser window. HUZZAH! My link in my bookmarks works too. Rejoice knitters of the land and lay down thy needles, ravelry is up and running.

Gotta go.

Pattern Snob

I have come to a realization about myself. I am a pattern snob. I have known this for some time, but didn't have a cute name for my disease.

Patternophobia (n.) an irrational fear of knitting one's yarn into an inferior project because you are sure a more perfect pattern is out there somewhere.

According to Google I am the first to use that word.

You see, I have all this lovely yarn. There are definite plans for some of it - a gift here, an indulgence there. The problems come when I try to decide on which pattern is worthy of my yarn. I narrow it down, only to find three or four new candidates. So what do I do? I knit for charity. I am proud to announce a breakthrough however. After many days searching, many websites visited, and many patterns bookmarked or downloaded (drum roll please) I have chosen the Austermann Sock pattern for the Step sock yarn. I got the pattern from their British language website but the American sizes are there. I did check two other sources and I feel confident that my sister is a size 38/39. I sat down and studied it and figured out the numbers for Debbie's size to plug into the pattern. God help me, I'm ready to take the plunge so I printed it out.

And the crowd goes wild.

In other news:
I took the two No Hair Day chemo caps over to the Mayer Center today. They were a huge success. The moderator of our group said she knew just the person for the red one. I promised more. They knit up very quickly so it shouldn't be long before I crank out another one.

As for the grown up socks? Pray for me.

BTW

I did finish my other Tiny Sock just a few days after the first one. I made what I believe was a pattern correction for the beginning of the heel. Shweeet! Then I studied hard in my "Knitters Companion" about how I picked up the stitches for the turn of the heel. I found out I misread what "pick up and knit" meant. Viola! No holes in my heel. Next was my toe, and a little attention to my change from an eight stitch draw-in to a Kitchener stitch. Ta-Daa! Better decreases = prettier toe.


Now then. I still gotta find a simple pattern for my first big girl socks. I want to use the Austermann Step sock yarn I bought at MSWF. There's a pattern on their site, but it's one of those universal patterns where you generate your own numbers and I didn't feel confident with that. I've read it over a couple of times and might try to write it out a little more clearly with the numbers I need for the size I want on another document and proofread it like crazy. If I do, I would probably beg someone else to look at it too. Until then . . .

The search goes on.

:)

Tiny Socks!

Anybody read Mutts?

In two days I knit a little pink sock. Okay a tiny sock but a sock nonetheless.

The pattern is Tiny Socks! from Cider Moon.
Needles: 5" bamboo dpn size 4
Yarn: Some leftover cotton I got with my "Learn To Knit" kit


I figured before tackling a full sized pair with my lovely sock yarn from Maryland Sheep and Wool some "training socks" were in order. While searching for pair of arm warmers I spotted my starters. I used a more sturdy yarn than called for in the pattern because I've never done a sock before and wanted to see the stitch definition. Tiny Socks has all the elements of a grown-up sock except there's no pad at the toe I think. It's 6 inches long from the back of the cuff to the toe if you stretch it out. The pattern called for just drawing up the last few stitches with a needle and weaving in the end. Nah. I whipped out my Knitters Companion and did a kitchener stitch with the last eight stitches. In the directions it says "used to close the toes of socks and under the arms of sweaters knit in the round". Sheesh! I wish I had known that when I was gnashing my teeth over my Knit for Kids sweater. I know I was only doing eight stitches, but the rhythm was no worse than what I was doing I think. Very cool how the top of the toe joins the bottom. It was impossible to photograph, sorry.

There were two places I think may have been mistakes in the pattern or at least I may change for the second sock. One is a missed SL at the beginning of the first heel flap row.

---------------------->

It looked sorta wrong to me after a few more rows and I ripped it back a few rows and reknit it. When I saw it was in the pattern I thought there might be a reason and moved on.

There wasn't.

<-------------------- I'm also not thrilled with how the weird triangle area at the heel looks. Only four stitches are picked up on the side of the heel. It's kinda holey. But c'mon we're talking 22 total stitches cast-on. The thing is, I did all the elements without a hitch barring my own decision to check out the hiccup with the slipped stitch.

On to sock two.