A year in the making

I started this sock a year ago on a road trip. I just returned from a road trip to the very same place, and I found myself knitting on the sock again. I had previously decided to rip out the heel and redo, but I changed my mind.

I took this picture to show the kind of scenery I was enjoying while knitting, but knitters might notice something interesting about this picture. Look at the needles. Can you see that one is missing? When I put the knitting into my knitting bag, I some how pulled out a double-point and didn't notice. Directly after taking this photo, I put the double-point back into the knitting. It actually went back in quite smoothly.

 

The yarn is Knitpicks, the discontinued Essentials. It's really quite soft and lovely to touch, in sharp contrast to some other Essentials I have.

 

I started the toe as written, and then remembered that I wanted a double-stranded toe. I ripped out 12 rows of toe and redid the toe to match the heel. That didn't turn out so well. The toe was too pointy to fit a human toe, and the decreases made the chequerboard look messy, not cute. I ripped out the double-stranded toe, and redid it as written in the pattern, finishing just as we arrived home this afternoon. A year later, one sock complete.

 

The pattern is Hiiumaa from Knitting on the Road

Two Skew

 

It seems like I can't count. I make a LOT of errors while knitting this pattern. For that black and white sock, I reknit so many times, I'm convinced I could have made a complete second sock in the time I spent fixing errors. Not big errors, just little ones where I find I'm one or two stitches off.

 

Interestingly, I'm making another pair just like this one! I'm still on the foot repeats.

 

So Cute!

I was looking through my knitting books last night when I discovered this book. I bought it in Spain. Sadly, I've quite neglected it, because I don't understand anything it says. But the animals are adorable!

Online Superskew

My daughter wanted a pair of those "sideways socks". Skew isn't really sideways, but that's what she calls it. This necessitated some yarn shopping to get the perfect yarn. And it is perfect! It's just her colours. Even better, I went to buy it and it was 30% off.

 

I cast on right away. To make them fit her slender foot, I'm knitting the pattern as written, but at a smaller gauge.

 

These pictures show the sock right before the "origami moment", just ready to kitchener the heel shut.

 

Off to kitchener.

Yarn store grumble

Whine, whine, it's my blog and I'll whine if I want to.

I went to a yarn store yesterday. I generally don't go to this store. A few years ago I went there to buy a needle, and stood there by the counter holding the needle for a full fifteen minutes while the worker chatted and knitted in the next room, ignoring my attempts to get her attention. I finally put the needle back and drove to a yarn store in a different community so I could buy the needle from some one who might possibly give a flying freak.

But I went there again, yesterday, because they're the only local place that sells the sock yarn I was looking for. The worker was helping another customer. She asked the customer a question, and while the lady was starting to answer, she breezed past me and asked, "Are you finding everything okay?" Actually, I wasn't, and I needed help, but the circumstances--she in the middle of a conversation with another customer--demanded of my own personal etiquette that I answer the most truthfully I could without engaging her, "For now." When she finally finished with the customer, I turned to ask my question, but she whipped out her cell phone and dialed, telling the person on the other end that she was just leaving now. Then, right on cue, another employee walked in, and they had to greet each other and discuss each other's health. By the time the first employee left, I had been wanting help for twenty minutes, and was starting to run late. The new employee said, "I'm guessing you don't need any help, or else she would have been following you around." Funny, that, what an inflated idea she has of her coworker's customer service practices. I responded, "Actually, I'm interested in this pattern here" and finally got the info I needed. She was very nice, and offered pattern assistance if I needed it.

By the time I got out of there, I was late for my coffee date, but fortunately, everybody else was later. All good, there.

Days like that make me not sorry to order things online. It still puzzles me, how common it is to read stories of yarn stores with lousy and adversarial customer service. They must not really need consistently good customer service, I guess.

I'm skewed

I am still infatuated with the Skew pattern. I'm getting closer and closer to the heel, and it's so intoxicating. I just can't wait to fold up that beautiful heel!

I did start these socks on a size 2 needle, and while my knitting instincts were yelling at me that this gauge was not okay, my calculating brain was determined to stay with a size 2 needle. I finally showed Knitting Coworker, and she confirmed that I needed to drop down a needle, so I started over. I was reluctant, because by going down to a size 1 needle, I have to go up to 84 stitches, but the pertinent numbers are all provided here.

Ok, back to knitting!