Knee Deep In Entrelac

At long last my socks are done! They've actually been done for about a week, but life has been pretty hectic lately and I haven't been blogging much, so at last I've gotten a photo and can show off what I did!

Overall I'm happy with the socks. I like the colours a lot, and the Cherry Tree Hill superwash sock yarn was really nice to knit with. I used one skein each of the blue variegated and the solid purple (each skein is enough for 1 pair of crew length socks) with a comfortable amount of each left over. I went up to 9 st squares at the very top, and maybe should have stuck with 8. The top triangles are bigger than I expected, and even decreasing quite a few stitches for the top ribbing and using a 2 x 2 rib the top edge is rather loose. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do anything about it or not; I'll decide after I've worn them a few times. I'm probably going to wear them as my yoga-class socks (I love wearing hand knit socks for shivasana!)

There are definitely lots of little holes in some of the squares corners, in the heel shaping, and along the base and top triangles, but I don't think I'm going to fuss with them too much. I usually opt for deciding to do things a different way the next time I do a similar technique or pattern rather than getting to compulsive about what is already done.

Would I make these socks again? Probably not as knee socks, but I would consider trying a crew-length pair and refining some of the techniques, such as doing the yo's in the heel instead of the wraps, etc. I'm also really intrigued by Bex's comments about the Fixation and/or Esprit cotton yarn. As wool does make me a tad itchy in the knee socks the cotton sounds like a very good choice for a second attempt. I must admit, I'd love to do black and white squares. I'll keep watching what the rest of you do as well!

Sorry

Sorry it took so long for me to post. I've been making tons of shower gifts. So, I've only finished the one sock. I'm pretty pleased with it. Even so, it's the second one that I have knit, so I'm going to take a short break before finishing the other one.



I'm really happy that I switched to the Cascade Fixation. I've seen a few people on craftster who are going to use Elann's Esprit, which i the even cheaper way to go. I only used one skein of the orange, and about 3/4 skein of the green to make this sock, so all in all, they will have cost me 20 bucks. With the Esprit, it would be 12. Not a bad deal.

This sock is super stretchy (except for the heel, but I think if you use the one Spincerely posted it would be awesome) and wonderful. It is thick and soft and luscious and many friends and have touched it and cuddled it, because it literally is cuddly. I was hoping that the cotton would make it wonderful to wear in the summer, but it appears to be a pretty warm sock. Some people have asked about walking on it, and it's lovely. The yarn is absolutely lovely.



I did have to increase to 8 stitch rectangles pretty quickly. I did 3 at 6, 2 at 7 and the rest at 8 to get the right fit for me.

Heel Idea

Good morning:)

I just wanted to write a quick post because in the newest issue of Interweave Knits there is an article on toe-up socks and the heel pattern given in that is awesome! It is so easy and looks much nicer. Both sides look very similar to each other. It is easier because it uses yarn overs instead of wraps in the short rows and they are much easier to see and count. Hope this helps!

Finally got the yarn

I finally bought the yarn for my Entrelac socks. It's Sandnes mandarin Petit cotton yarn in a multi-color and green. So now I have to wait for my needles to arrive. I feel the need to do these socks at once to avoid second sock syndrome.

heel

I was going to try and take pictures but my sock and I are currently not speaking to each other. I feel it best that we spend a few days apart and see how I feel then. (I droped a stitch right down a colum of P2togs.)

So I bassed this on the reverse dutch heel from the sock knitters class. They suggest adding about an inch worth of stitches to each side for the gusset. I did some scary math stuff that somehow seemed to work for me and figured out that for my last CC tier before the heel I needed to pick up 8 stitches instead of 6 on the sole side (I did this for the last 3 squares of the tier) Then I worked the heel triangles picking up 9 sitches for each one.

Then I followed the directions here: http://www.socknitters.com/toe-up/lessonfour.htm

I used 12 stitches for my heel flap, but you can adjust that if you need a narrower or wider heel.