Road trip wrap-up post #3

So I've gotten into the habit of knitting from Knitting on the Road whenever I'm away from home. It's a cutesy little habit, but fun. This time I upped the cute factor by casting on the Friday Harbor socks on Whidbey Island. We didn't actually make it to Friday Harbor this trip, but we stayed in Anacortes, and spent a day on Whidbey Island, the very places she references in her description of the pattern.



Pattern: Friday Harbor from Knitting on the Road
Yarn: Mountain Colors. I've lost the tag on this yarn. I thought it was the yarn called for in the book, but I also thought it was Bearfoot, and the pattern called for Weavers Wool. So I'm all confused. Ravelry calls Bearfoot fingering, and this is chunkier than fingering. So I just remain confused.



Needle: Size 5 Knitpicks circular. The pattern called for a size 2 needle, so I'd brought along a size 3, expecting to use that. I was swatching in the car on our drive from Anacortes to Langley, and I was so very impatient to get knitting. Size 3 didn't give me gauge, so I pulled out my set of interchangable needles, but size 4 didn't give me gauge, either. I was so relieved that size 5 worked, because then I could STOP SWATCHING AND START KNITTING. Unfortunately, I had stitch gauge but not row gauge, and thus wound up running out of space on the foot before I'd properly completed the second chart.



While it seems like a flagrant act of insubordination to knit Nancy Bush socks on circular needles, I'm just not such a fan of double points. I was grateful that I knew the cuff chart involved a little tweaking and knit-reading on the part of the knitter. If you follow the chart blindly, it comes out wrong. I knit each cuff, heel, and toe separately, and worked the legs and feet together, magic loop style, on the circulars.



The cuffs and legs were knit in the Puget Sound area. The first heel was knit in Wenatchee. The second heel was knit on the beach in Pacific City, Oregon. The feet and toes were completed on the long drive home.