I absolutely love this colorway from Socks That Rock. Very American southwest, which is perfect because that is where they will spend the rest of their days, or so I expect. I hope to send them off to my sister as a belated birthday gift (her b'day was yesterday!)
Yarn:
I started out with two skeins of Lorna's Laces in the Gold Hill colorway. I abandoned the Lorna's Laces midway. I next tried Socks That Rock in the medium weight Jonagold colorway.
Needles:
Initially, with the Lorna's Laces, I knitted up the first toe on size US1/2.25mm bamboo and rosewood dpns. I found working the traveling stitches in the confines of the toe daunting with the blunt edges of my dpns so I started a second sock using size US2/2.75 bamboo dpns. After finishing the toe I used Cat Bordhi's two circular needle technique up to the start of the gusset wherein I returned to using the bamboo dpns.
I found that I had to keep my gauge very loose in order to use the circular needle technique and I wasn't that happy with the end product. With that, and some frustration over the directions for turning the heel, I decided a complete restart was what I needed to get reinvigorated with the project.
For the final, STR version I used US2/2.75mm bamboo dpns for most of the project until the pattern instructed a size up for shaping for the lower calf. I didn't have size 3.00mm needles so I used US3/3.25mm.
Pattern:
Firestarter by Yarnissima
The pattern is not difficult, as I love cabling, or traveling stitches, as they are called in the pattern, and am familiar with short rows, and sock architecture in general. Understanding the pattern as it was written, however, was difficult and taxed my patience enormously. That is where the Firestarter KAL really came in handy. A big thanks to Peaknit for setting it up and managing it! Once I got through all the ups and downs in knitting the first sock, I breezed through the second in no time.
I did make some modifications to the pattern to account for the smaller foot size and the heavier weight of the yarn. Instead of a 60 stitch sock/30 stitch CO, I knit a 48 stitch sock/24 stich CO. I had to reduce the number of coin cables in order to start the gusset. I knit three coin cables instead of five. My gusset was 18 stitches wide, I can't remember if that was in line with the pattern.
Once I finished the heel/gusset reattachment I found the give on the sock to be more than a little unforgiving and decided to expand the ankle significantly. This was done by increasing the leg rib from a 2p1k to a 3p1k in two consecutive rows. I also increased the 1p stitch in between the first twisted k stitch and the coin cable to 2p stitches, as well as worked in two extra 3p1k sections, one at the center front of the sock, one at the center back of the sock. This resulted in a 20 stitch increase.
I really love how these socks came out. I will most certainly incorporate the lovely coin cable and twisted stitches in some future pair of socks.
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