Rushing along with Rivulets

It just so happens that I have a lot of things I need/want to knit. Things for my kids, gifts, stuff I fancy, stuff I imagine, a couple unfinished objects, etc. I'm longing to knit up my Sweet Sheep yarn and the Lark yarn; it's just sitting by my bed tormenting me, all of it. So I don't have a good explanation why I started on these Rushing Rivulet socks. They are pictured in the New Pathways for Sock Knitters, with a chart, but knitters have to utilize the Riverbed Architecture and figure it out for themselves. The Riverbed Architecture is supposed to be nice because you can fill the socks with a pattern, right to the sides of the heels. I have never before in my sock-knitting days longed to fill the sides of the heels with pattern. So naturally I tried it. Ever since seeing the pic of the Rivulet socks, the pattern has been telling me it would be perfect with my Rio del Plata yarn. And admittedly, this sock yarn has been waiting a lot longer than the Sweet Sheep yarn.

In this pic above, you can hopefully see the V-shape that creates the increases on the sole. It also shows my markers. The book recommends letter markers. On these socks I'm using embroidery floss tied into loops. I don't need letters on my markers to keep track, and most of my markers were too chunky to work nicely with such thin yarn. But my skull markers were just perfect for keeping track of the 3 row repeats.


This second picture above shows the rivulet pattern, a basic pattern of k2tog followed by a yo.


I turned one heel today. I had high expectations of turning two, but I did a lot of Homework Mom duties, which involved many interruptions. One of the tricks I had with this sock was deciding how to carry the rivulet pattern down the sides of the socks as the increases in the sole moved stitches from the sole to the sides. I wound up tracking the increase rows in groups of four. On the third of four increase rows, I would add the rivulet pattern on only one side, on the side where the k2tog occurred within 2 stitches of the existing pattern. On the fourth increase row, I finished adding the four-stitch rivulet pattern on both sides of the sock. This is because every four increase rows meant eight stitches added to the centre of the sole, which meant I could add two four-stitch repeats on the sides. Clear as mud?


What a funky shaped sock this is!