Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Step 2: The Leg - Socks on Two Circs

Oy, oy, oy! Who'da thunk that trying to find a suitable stitch pattern for my sock leg would be so exhausting and frustrating?

I frogged this herbst sock a total of 5 (yes 5!!) times. And why? Because, because, because [insert pathetic whining here]. My herbstmedolie opal sock yarn is so vibrant (but I still lerv it) with such short runs of colour that all the patterns I chose were swallowed up by the bright colouring [bugger].

After the first few froggings, I figured that the kind of stitch pattern to "pop" would probably be an embossed stitch of some kind. So off I went in search of such a pattern. Ohmigod! Endless hours, ridiculously late nights, very little sleep, lots of chocolate, two more froggings and still no suitable pattern after a week!

My own fault really (a) for choosing such a colourful yarn, and (b) for only casting on 60 stitches [I must protest here that I do have a small foot!]. I found a couple of patterns that looked pretty good, but they all required 56 or 64 stitches, and I didn't want to frog my sock cuff for the sixth time.

So, finally yesterday I settled on a pattern (of course, it was the first one I saw more than a week ago....), and the leg is knitting up fairly nicely. The pattern is called "Ridged Squares" and is from the book "More Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch. Here's where my leg's at:


Another sock pattern I really like is the Jaywalker. But it required size 2.25mm needles and an 84 stitch cast on. Not suitable for my current sock, but there's always next time.

Stay tuned for Step 3 - Turning the heel!