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This post is about socks, eventually

I finished my Seal Rock Socks last Thursday and they are gorgeous. I haven't really worn them other than to model them in the frozen sun Saturday morning, but I'm looking forward to it. Atreyu, my Australian Shepherd, was kind enough to inspect the bridge before I crossed it to stage my socks. Isn't he handsome?


Ripley gets all the photos here b/c he's the one who needs my woolen expertise, but Atreyu is the beauty of our canine family. Between our two remaining felines it's a toss up. Grissom is the king of the castle and Hunter is our scaredy cat.



My socks? Not so cute, but there is something about them...




I finished the first sock using a tubular cast off. I went back to Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook and using her advice I put the stitches on two needles and kitchenered them together. It worked like a charm.


A week later, and about 10 stitches in on the second sock, the technique lost it's appeal. I decided to frog back on both socks and just used my basic bind off.

One thing I realized as I was knitting these up is that the addi turbo size 2's that I purchased to use with Cat Bordhi's two circ technique are really 2.5's, or 3.00mm. Addi Turbos doesn't make 2.75mm size 2s which is the width of all of my size 2 dpns. Now that's a bit frustrating.

I don't know if it was mastering the 2 circ technique, or just a newly visible trend in my knitting, but by the time I hit the rib cuff on the second sock it was obvious I was knitting in two different gauges. The toes look comparable:


However, the calves are where the gauge issue becomes visible. The right sock is the one I finished first. The yellow demarcation shows where I went from using 2.75mm (size US2) dpns to 3.00mm (size US2.5). Below the line, where I used the dpns, the pooling matches up. Above the yellow line, where I was using the Addi circs, the pooling is much less consistent.


The difference only became visible to me after I had knit about 14 of the 20 ribbed cuff rows on the second sock. There was a marked difference in the pooling on the ribbing, so I decided to frog back to where the ribbing began and finished the sock using size US3 (3.25mm) dpns. These matched my initial gauge much better than the 2.75 mm dpns.

Yarn
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock mediumweight in the Seal Rock colorway
100% superwash merino

Needles
Size US2 and US3 dpns and size US2.5 circulars

Pattern
Basic toe up sock using Judy's magic cast on toe and a slipped stitch k2tog heel

Comments

HobbygÃ¥sa said…
I just love the colors of those socks! What a cute dog, and a gentleman too. The cats are also cute, even if I am a "dogperson".
Unknown said…
Those socks are great. The colors are so pretty and somewhat springy. They look cozy and comfy. Great job!