Fearless Fibers Yarn

And the Winner Is … (plus your sock questions answered)

The results are in from my knitting-friend judge and the winner is … Lissa. Congratulations, Lissa! The felted bag kit is small consolation for the pain of the knitting error you described, but every little bit of comfort helps, right? Be sure to check your e-mail for info on receiving your prize.

For those of you who didn’t read all of the contest entries, Lissa described knitting a sweater in the round, using steeks for the underarms and neck. She used a crochet method to secure the steeks (wisely “sewing and cutting” rather than “cutting and sewing”). But then, disaster struck as she proceeded to cut on the wrong side of the crochet “sewing” she had just completed.

Imagine the horror! I recounted this story on Friday at a knitting session at my favorite LYS, Farmhouse Knits in Beaverton, Oregon. The response from the knitting gals was pretty much what you would expect: gasps of shock, eyes widened in terror at the thought, and hands reflexively covering mouths agape with horror.

If you haven’t read all of the other entries, there were some good ones there! You might want to go back and read the comments to this post to learn why someone would frog a sweater while wearing it, to hear about how one knitter learned the lesson that most babies do in indeed have arms, to read a poem about what can go wrong with a spray bottle of vinegar, and other such intriguing tales.

Thank you again to all for your entries!

Before I sign off for today, I also want to take a moment and touch back on the knee socks again from my posting on August 24th. I realize that I never answered a couple of your questions on that topic, so will do that now.

Was there enough yarn in one 4-ounce skein of the Superwash Merino Sock Yarn? Yes, indeed there was. If you recall, testing this was one of the reasons I knit these socks in the first place. It turns out that there was plenty of yarn. I did make the socks a bit shorter than I should have and it was also a lacey pattern with a lot of stretch to it, but there was enough yarn left over when I was done that I can comfortably say that indeed there is enough for a pair of knee socks in one of these 4-ounce skeins.

What pattern did I use for the socks? There was no actual pattern used for these socks. I just used my favorite standard cuff down, vanilla sock pattern and replaced the dull stockinet with a lace stitch on the leg and top of the foot. One little secret about these socks is that I didn’t have to do any shaping to make the leg fit, as you might normally expect to see with knee socks. The lace stitch is a ribbed lace so the leg has tons of stretch to it (not only is it ribbed but the lace stitch itself gives more flexibility and stretch around the calf area). The double-eyelet lace rib stitch I used is one I've used previously that appeals to me both because I like the looks of it and also because it’s a 7-stitch repeat that divides evenly into the 56 stitch cast-on that I use with this standard, vanilla sock pattern. The 4 row repeat for the double-eyelet rib is super easy. Here it is (expressed for knitting in the round):

Rows 1, 2 & 4: *K5, P2* repeat around
Row 3: *K2TOG, YO, K1, YO, SLI, K1, PSSO, P2* repeat around

The ribbing at the top of the sock is a K5, P2 ribbing. This is not as tight a ribbing as I usually use for socks, but I wanted the cuff ribbing to flow nicely into the patterned stitch, which as you can see above is also a K5, P2 variation of ribbing. It seems to have worked out fine, as the cuff is quite tight on its own and so I don’t anticipate any problems from the wider ribbing.

OK. That’s it for now. Stay tuned for my next update, including progress on the Fair Isle Sweater which is now finally on the sticks.

Congrats again to Lissa for her contest win!