Tuesday, March 13, 2007

My Obsession

As soon as I saw these socks in my new IK, the rest of the magazine disappeared. Hello, my name is Shannon F. and I am obsessed with entrelac and "garterlac" (entrelac done in garter stitch). Witness here and here (hee hee--it's not really a lampshade) and even the last paragraph here for the threat of intervention.

So. Of course, I HAD to make these socks.

Being on a tight budget these days, I ordered some Essential from knitpicks.com in Pine and Fawn. Only two balls of each because I don't like long socks. Not sure about the tassle thing either.

I couldn't wait for my package to arrive so I could cast on. The big day was last week.

Oh. My. I am used to doing socks cuff down, two at a time on two circs. What the heck is a Middle East-wrap cast on??? "See Glossary, page 122" Oh. OK. Uh. What the heck is a Middle East-wrap? Translation, please? "Knit across stitches on upper needle." Uh. Which end is up?

And it went downhill from there. Lessons learned so far--

  • the Easy Toe (found at knitty.com) really IS easy.
  • I don't like the shape of the easy toe (though starting with 8 stitches out of 72 was probably a bad idea)
  • AH HA!! toe up socks do not necessarily need to start at the tip of the toe (yes, it IS a tad pointy, I may ungraft and tink back a couple decrease rows)

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  • it's impossible to knit these two at a time on two circs
  • it's almost impossible to knit these one at a time on two circs
  • it's easier just to back down and break out the DPNs
  • slipping the first stitch on the free edge (as opposed to the decrease side) of each unit makes it a breeze to pick up your stitches (though sometimes, such as the first unit of a tier, you will have one less slipped stitch than you need...but it's not hard to fudge another)
  • if you start and frog twenty-something times, each time will get a little easier and will (usually) produce an even better result

at a point where I still suffered from the delusion I could knit these on 2 circs

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another of the earlier (post toe freak out, pre-final toe solution) attempts

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3 comments:

Bex said...

Haha! That totally made me laugh. Your sock looks frakin' beautiful!! You're doing such a great job. I liked the "lampshade" too. LOL

Jackie said...

ohh...this is the first I've seen of your entrelac socks. We've been chatting about them and I don't think I ever asked about your colors. I can't help but to look at your socks and think....she's making Slytherin socks.....I'm making Gryffindor socks :)

Spinsanity said...

I had to click on your name to figure out who you are, lol.

I take it that's an HP reference? Again, lol.