One of These Things is Not Like the Other
Sometimes there's nothing like seeing the recipient to make me get my act together and get something finished. Watching my Dad try on the first of these socks when we visited for his birthday got me set on getting the second one completed so that he could have a set!
These socks are made in Opal Brasil which Emma gifted me with to encourage me to get started knitting socks.
What did I learn from this project?
1) I knit these socks on needles that were too big. The recommended needles for Opal are 2.5 mm. Since this is between US size 1 and US size 2, I decided to go for the bigger needles since I tend to knit tightly. I think US size 1's would have been a better call.
2) I knit these socks on two circular needles and chose Crystal Palace bamboo needles. Bad choice again. The needles are nice, but not when you have to slide stitches over the joins a lot. The metal joins definitely aren't as smooth as the joins on my Addis. Also, these needles are 16". The ends of the needles kept getting in my way. I'll be sticking with 24" and greater from now on.
3) Opal can be a little strange. Take a look at the toe of the top sock. It almost looks like the Opal changed patterns. This was the first sock. I had 10-20 yards of this odd colorway and then it switched back to the main pattern.
4) Opal is fun yarn to knit with. I love the patterning -- in spite of the sock being all stockinette, the pattern in the yarn kept me going.
Here's a closeup of the pattern:
The question I leave for the reader to ponder is "Why are these socks fraternal?" (Hint...it's not because of the funky toe of the top sock).
Is it just me ...or do the stripe sequences run in opposite directions ?!
Still,they look good ,and I'm sure your father will love wearing them.
It looks as though one of the balls was wound backwards. Unusual, to say the least, but it does take some looking at to notice :)
you knit from each end of the yarn!
Everyone is pretty much right -- the pattern is inversed. It took me a long time to notice it when I started knitting the second sock (I was actually trying to knit them both going in the same direction, but I used my ball winder to skein up the yarn after I found the strange spot and got the ends mixed up). Since the bright green stripes fell in the same place, I decided not to worry about the inversion and keep going.