Knitting
Totally and completely amazing. The only sock on needles is the sockapalooza. The grasshoppers are complete. Not knit by the pattern completely (one sock is a sampler of various 2tog/yo combinations, with the second a bit closer to the real pattern.
Yarn= STR Silky in colorway “Walking on the Wild Tide”
Pattern= variation on Knee High to a Grasshopper, the April Rocking Sock Club Pattern. The key change was knitting the back of the sock in 1×1 ribbing. It may not be as pretty as the mesh, but the socks are staying up after a couple of hours. All the yarn overs were done front to back, which made the p2tog a snap.
Needles = 2,5 Colonial Rosewood dps over 56 stitches.
The yarn was lovely to knit, I will have to see how it wears. I find foot length much harder to estimate with toe up socks., perhaps in part because I am never in the situation where I can try them on in process. And moving stitches from my beloved dps to something else and back is a pain. Since I have never run out of sock yarn, I have proved that I can knit toe-up and will go back to knitting my top down socks. There is a lot of room for personal preference.
So what do I do for simpler project when Sockapalooza kntting is too much? Something out of More Sensational Knits? Certainly I should knit a fingering weight pair of Hocrux for 6Sox KAL and March Madness Monkeys for my spongemonkeys (be warned, the song is horrible) as part of the running family joke since they started singing “We like the moon” at World Con [LA CON IV] last summer.
Sockapalooz4
Only a couple more rows tonight. I have to decide whether I am going to take them along to Vancouver, or just go with simple patterns on the trip. The pattern, which I created by pulling various twisted patterns from a couple volumes of Strickmuster aus dem Steirischen Ennstal, has two panels which are quite complicated with side panels that are less so. It takes concentration. Unlike the twisted stitch patterns that wind up in most popular pattern books, these panels include a lot of knit/purl swaps. Since I wanted to make my pal something that was going to be unique, I think I have succeeded, unless I go insane in the process.
Audio Books
Finished Dead Wrong by J A Jance tonight. In plenty of time to return it prior to leaving town. Now to decide what to load onto the MP3 player for the trip. My cassette recorder is not cooperating. That might be good in that it takes up a whole lot more space.
-Holly
I think you were very smart to knit that ribbing in the back! They look great and way more snug. I DO like the yarn and the socks are soft and comfortable, but mine are so slouchy! and I’m with you – I don’t think I’ll ever be a toe up sock knitter! (I DID kind of like that heel though)
That’s a great idea to do the ribbing in the back of the sock. I read on another blog (actually, on Pat’s blog, the commenter before me) the socks have trouble staying up as knitted from the pattern. They look great.