As per usual

Instead of napping, I am blogging.

I thought I'd give a quick update on the socks I started (and frogged) yesterday. Since I had such a horrendous morning, I figured I deserved to be able to cast-on for a pair of cool socks rather than plugging away at the 2x2 ribbing for the cuff of my first Step Sock. I bought a hank of Araucania Multi Ranco fingering wool at Loop last week with the intent of making something for the Bean. Since I have three sweaters in various states of completion right now for the Bean, I figured the Bean has enough for now and I deserved something cool.

I was paging though some of the patterns on Ravelry and came across an adaptation of Cookie A.'s Pomatomus Socks pattern from Knitty turned fingerless gloves. How cool would a kettle-dyed green yarn look as scaly gloves? Of course, then I also got involved in Socktoberfest so I thought green scaly socks would be even better, although I still plan to get another hank to do up the gloves as well - it's that cool.

The pattern as written is for top-down socks which really annoy me, so I started looking for toe-up adaptations. I found one on The Shizzknit that looked promising and set to work. The original pattern is written for a women's size 9 using US 2 (2.75mm) needles. Since I have wide, high-instep, size 10 feet, I decided to try things out with my Addi Turbo 3mm needle. The resulting fabric was a little looser that what I usually do for socks (checked and my gauge was 7.5 sts/inch which would translate to about 7 sts/inch once it's been blocked). I plugged away using the instructions from The Shizzknit until it was time to start the lace pattern and I couldn't wrap my mind around her instructions. The potential problem with this pattern is that the lace pattern isn't rectangular, so there is a separate chart for use on the instep of the sock. It also changes stitch counts in the middle which is another potential stumbling block. Reading over Cookie's instructions, I figured if I changed the k3togtbl on line 1 of chart B to a k2togtbl only for the first time I worked it, I would be fine.

I got through almost two pattern repeats before I realized that I didn't really like the way it was working up on the 3mm needles. I tried it on my foot and it just seemed too loose, and this is my end of the day 5 month pregnant foot too. With a sigh, I frogged it. After I lay down for a bit (which I am going to force myself to do no matter how much I want to go knit right now), I'm going to cast-on again but use my 2.5mm Addis instead and see how that goes. I'm still not sure if I'm going to use a short-row heel or try out a toe-up heel flap and gusset from Sensational Knitted Socks. I'll post pics later on today.