Socks: July 2004 Archives

A Little Loose Around the Edges

Had a lovely night at the KIP tonight. It was a small but happy group at Letizia's. And it gave me the chance to finish up most of John's first Pin Stripe Sock.

Here's the first of the PinStripe socks. Evidence of both the thrill of victory and agony of de-feet. This sock fits well in the leg and foot portion, but I got the toe a little long (probably should have only knit 7 inches instead of 7-1/2" before starting the toe decreases) and the heel is probably a little baggy, too (U did a 6 point decrease and probably should have gone to 50% of the original stitches + 6 instead of 50% of the stitches before starting the decrease on every row component).

I haven't decided whether I will rip or not. After all, it is just a sock. I can make the second one a little bit shorter and with a slightly different shaping to the heel. Given the patterning in the yarn, these things won't make too much difference.

Of course, I say that now because I am a little bit tired of this grey and black sock. I suspect that my knitting "conscience" will get the better of me and I I will make the second one, be unable to live with the first one, and rip out the toe and the heel on the first one.

But you never know.

What will the weekend bring? I'm not quite sure yet, but it may be time to get back to the Phil Ruban Tank Top or my microfiber ribbon tank. I might even start something new...

Lorna's Laces Pinstripe Sock

I've been on 6 different planes in the last 7 days. That's a lot more airplanes per day than I usually average. I don't hate to travel, I actually find it pretty exciting, but I do find that the process takes a lot out of me. Business travelling is a high energy process for me -- making sure I get where I need to go on time, accomplishing my mission and getting home without leaving anything important behind. After all the focused energy and the excitement of the trip, when I finally do get home, I often get a little bit of the "after party blues" going. My normal routine looks, well, routine.

That's kind of where I am now. Even after a day of being back in town, I still have this blah feeling swirling around me. It's compounded a little bit by the feeling like I managed to find a little cold virus somewhere en route to home. So I hope I'll be forgiven for not having much exciting to show.

In fact, the only thing I have to show for all that airplane time is about 6 inches of the sock I am working on for John. You'd have thought with all that flight time I would have had time to knit something spectacular, but I had to spend a lot of it preparing for things and getting caught up on some reading.

There's nothing fancy about this sock. It's knit at about 8-9 stitches/inch using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Pinstripe colorway. It's going to have an afterthought heel. Shepherd sock knits up nicely and has a nice smooth feel to it. I think I might have to consider some socks for myself out of it in the future. The best part for me, though, is that even though it has an odd bit of pooling, I've gotten the thumbs up from the boy that this sock will be accepted into his wardrobe eventually. Apparently manly coloration and wifely dedication to sock knitting have overcome his aversion to unusual pattterns.

(Actually, John's made me feel quite good about the socks I've knit for him. The grey striped Opal socks are in constant rotation since his building is a little too well air conditioned. And let me just say that Opal wears like iron. For as much as he wears those socks, you'd expect to see some wear and tear, but after a nice dunk in the washer, they look almost brand new. )