Knots Socks 1: The Beginning
Pattern: my own; a 3x2 rib combined with the "cross stitch rib" from Barbara Walker #1. It's pretty simple, just a right twist every other row.
Yarn: Trekking XXL colorway 69, 75% wool/25% nylon, 1 ball - 420 m/459 yd per ball
Needles: 2 mm/US 0 Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs
Gauge: about 8 stitches/inch
I finished these awhile ago but I haven't gotten around to getting good pictures of them. Commuter socks from way-back-when. Hey, at least it was still this year.
I was feeling all "I want a pair of unique socks" so I busted out the Barbara Walker 1. The "Cross Stitch" pattern was simple, just a ribbing where one of the ribs was turned into a right twist every other row. It gives the appearance of rows of knots on the socks, but without the hard bumps associated with such. I like that it shows off a little flash of color from the marled Trekking on the long stitch.
I knit very loosely, even at small sizes. The Trekking yarn really needed these 2 mm DPNs - it was far too loose with 2.25 mm needles.
At first I didn't care for the Trekking XXL yarn since it seemed a little scratchy. But I warmed up to it and now I'm quite enamored. It can be a bit splitty, the 3 plies are easily separated. I have not mastered the magic of knitting without looking at it though, so I can't talk about that. Hopefully the nylon will help it wear well. I LOVE the marling. LOVE LOVE LOVE CRUSH MARLING. Colorway 69 is mostly grey-brown with muted greens, reds, and a touch of yellow thrown in. I think I've discussed the mercurial and simple nature of my sense of amusement in this space before. Oh yes do I love seeing those colors change.
There's calf shaping for the first inch. I added an extra stitch to each purl trough, then decreased them gradually after an inch. I started with 88 stitches and decreased down to 72. This worked well for my legs, but 72 stitches was too big around the bottom of my foot. I guess I have slim heels and not as wide a feet as I thought.
I had to mess around with the heel flap to get 5 knotted columns on the foot (me and my little fascination with odd numbers), and it was too many. If I did them again, I'd pull out 1, maybe 2 ribs. The Trekking stretches an AMAZING amount. I thought there was no way these would fit my feet, but actually they're a touch too big.
There's a standard(ish) heel flap (see above, had to mess with the stitch distributions and I don't think it came out that great). They were done top down (because I am boring like that. These are my mindless commuter socks. I promise I'll try toe-up someday). I also kitchenered the ends with WAY more stitches than usual (20 stitches instead of 8), but I have kind of blunt-ended feet so they work ok for me.
I used almost the entire ball of Trekking. I had only a few grams left, maybe 25-50 m. This for a pair of socks in more-or-less a ribbed pattern on size 11 woman's feet. If I were making them for a larger size (say, men's 11), I'd need 2 balls, or at least would need to decrease the length of the cuff.
Now I'm working on Knots Socks 2: Smaller but Better Fitting. I don't like the new colorway quite so much as the one for these socks. Ah well. It's still fun watching the changing colors.
The feets, they are mostly happy, I think.
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