KnitWerk

We took a nice, long car trip up the coast over the extended holiday, so I had lots of knitting time. I finished two pairs of socks: the new Sockapal2za socks, as well as a pair for my husband. First, for my pal, Errant Ankles by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer of Heartstrings, in a pretty, denim-colored Koigu KPM.

Project notes

• The pattern is a free tutorial on the socknitters site.
• While it’s nice to have this excellent pattern for free, there are some down sides. I’m accustomed to tersely-written patterns that save space. I was really annoyed by the tutorial format, since the actual directions are tucked in between pages and pages of long explanations. I wanted to start right away, but had to read through all this stuff to find basic things like how many stitches to cast on. To print the full pattern as written requires pages and pages of paper.
• The good part to the tutorial format is that you get to peek inside the design process. Also, she discusses many design options, and includes directions for alternate options. Once I calmed down and started reading, I found it pretty interesting.
• Though it’s written for sport-weight yarn, I used fingering weight Koigu. One of the extra credit sections discusses many options for changing gauge, and it was a snap.
• This was my first banded heel and spiral toe. Pretty heel! I love the fit of the spiral toe, too—I hate the feeling of extra fabric folding over my feet in shoes, and these are wonderful for pointy-toed people like me. Hmmm… I share this sensitivity with my father… maybe he would find this style comfortable, too? Dad, speak up if you’re interested.
• The lace pattern is super, duper simple. There are really just 3 rows to memorize for the entire sock: first section odd numbered, second section odd-numbered, and all even-numbered rows are the same. The diagonals come from the natural bias of the fabric. Easy, peasy.
• I knitted both at the same time on the magic loop. I highly recommend it for the lazy, disorganized or easily distracted knitter (like me). This is the perfect solution to the second sock problem. Also, some tweaking of the toes and heels was required to accommodate the change in gauge, and this allowed me to do the shaping at the same time, no notes required. Finally, I can see that this would be helpful for knitting a more complicated lace pattern, since you do the same row pattern for even longer.
• Summary: thumbs up from Sara! I’d definitely knit this pattern again, and I’ll be doing all my socks two-at-the-same-time from now on.

Now all I have to do is package ‘em up and mail them. In the mean time, they’re lounging near the window. The Koigu is pretty, with an almost nutty texture, and a slightly-varied color reminiscent of favorite old jeans: