Swamp Socks!
As promised yesterday, here is the knitting I accoplished at SnB on Monday night. It is a toe-up sock using Wendy‘s toe-up technique of a crochet chain provisional cast-on and a short-row toe. However, because I didn’t swatch first (I know, bad, bad girl) I had ended up with about 10 sts/in on the Sz 0 needles. Now, I know I was pulling awfully tight because I was a bit stressed/nervous so I think I could have loosened up to a gauge of 9 st/in but this size still wasn’t going to fit me. So, to the frog SWAMP I went and then started over yesterday.
Since I am using my hand dyed swamp yarn I was also noticing that the short row on the toe was going to give me slightly different shades on each side of the toe rather than a gradual lightening of the green as I progressed towards the instep so I decided to give another toe-up cast-on a try. I eliminated the figure-8 having heard many, many discussions about how fiddly it can be to get a good looking cast-on with it. With some help from Deb, I used a Turkish Cast-On which I have to say is just genius. I *love* it and am positive that if I do toe-up socks very often this will likely be my cast-on of choice. I’m not sure if I’ll do toe-up very often as I really like the fit of the heel flap, but we’ll see how the short row heel does. Anyone have other recommendations (besides afterthought) of heel techniques for toe-up socks? I’m open to any of them!
If you look close those who have been reading for a while will notice something different about this SIP photo (other than it being toe-up)… Yep, I’m giving the 2-circ method a try. Since I needed two circs for the cast-on I decided I might as well give the 2-circ method the old college try. I have to say it is a HUGE improvement over magic loop for me. It does have the advantage that I don’t have needle ends getting caught up in my sleeves or that. I do still feel like I’m spending a fair bit of time readjusting the sock, but I’m thinking it isn’t taking any longer than using the DPNs. And, despite what I’ve read about the 2-circ method, I’m finding the 16-inch length totally doable and suspect I’d hate it with the 24-inch circulars for similar reasons that I hated the magic loop.
Lastly, check out this great little button Amanda brought from TNNA? Isn’t that awesome??? I love it, though DH thinks it is wierd, LOL! Also, there is a winner to the comment contest and I’ll be making the official announcement tomorrow. But, please keep commenting, you never know when I’ll surprise someone else!
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