Lamb and Frog

Devilish

I was just reviewing some old blog entries and noticed that Dad’s socks were virtually identically striped even though they came from two different balls of yarn and even though I wasn’t paying attention to exactly where in the colorway I was starting on the second ball.

I noticed this today because last night I noticed that I most certainly will not be ending up with two virtually identically striped socks for the DH’s Devil’s Tower socks. I’m pretty anal, but do I care? No, not really. These are socks. For my husband. To wear under steel-toed boots. Ain’t no one gonna see them but me and him. I’ve got about two inches done on the cuff of the second sock and I’m pressing on.

Perhaps we should start a pool when these socks are finished…how long will it take the DH to notice they aren’t identical? Or maybe we should just take 50/50 bets as to whether or not he’s stupid brave enough to point out that they aren’t identical after I just spent God knows how many hours and $30 worth of Austermann Step knitting him fine-gauge, custom-fit wool hunting socks)?

Note to Readers: If you have a really good technique for figuring out how to start in the same part of the colorway while using the long-tail cast on, please oh please share your wisdom.

Froggish

The first pair of deadline socks (which shall remain nameless and pictureless on the blog, but not on Ravelry, until they have met their intended recipient who has been known to visit here) involved my first attempt at a short-row heel. That attempt was aborted when I misunderstood the directions for doing the decrease (second) half of the heel. I tried frogging back to where the increases ended. Not happening. I tried frogging back to the cuff. No dice. I tried frogging back to a readable pattern repeat. Nothing doing. I ended up frogging the whole freakin’ sock. And it’s a deadline sock! Crud.

I still love the pattern (it’s easy, but looks hard…again, if you’re interested see Ravelry) so I started over a couple of days ago (after I spent a couple of days grieving the first first sock’s demise). The second first sock is moving much more quickly because I’m more familiar with the pattern (or at least that’s what I’m telling myself). But here’s what’s gonna happen when I get to the heel. First, I’m going to thread a lifeline through the last pattern row on the cuff. I thought about doing this the first time and didn’t. See what happens when you taunt the knitting goddess? Second, I’m going to work the heel over two needles instead of one. Apparently, most short-row heels are worked on half of the available stitches on two needles (as opposed to heel-flap socks which work half the available stitches all on one needle). I’m pretty sure this caused at least part of my problem because after the increases, I had too many stitches on one needle to read the knitting clearly. And, because I have never done this type of heel before, I need to be able to read the knitting to figure out what the heck I’m doing. Third, I’m going to stop working on this particular sock once I’ve completed the increase portion of the heel and I’m going to finish at least one (maybe two) short-row heels on some other socks (one of the two pairs of anklets that are also on deadline) just to make sure I know how short-row heels ‘work’.

Back at you on FO Friday to let you know what all got accomplished. Happy knitting.