Isn't it lovely? I love the colors, and the way it knits up.
Unfortunately, I had to rip. It was too wide & baggy.
I had picked a pattern and checked the gauge & thought I was ready to go. But then I realized that the pattern was for 5 dpns & I only had 4. I panicked. If I had stayed calm and thought it through, I would have realized that it was easy enough to adjust from 5 to 4. But this is one of those detailed patterns, on which every other line seems to read, 'you'll have X stitches on needle 1, Y stitches on needle 2, Z stitches on needle 3, and ZZ stitches on needle 4. Using needle 5 do this fancy thing I'm going to describe now'
As I say, I panicked and quickly found another pattern, this time written for 4 needles. I also decided to alter any pattern I made because I wanted a fairly short sock.
Which is all to explain why, even though I had done the gauge twice, I still ended up with a sock that might have fit me when my ankles were obscenely swollen during my summer pregnancy eons ago, but that just looked like saggy elephant now.
I realized quite early that it was too big (I had cast on 56 on #3 needles) but I decided to keep going & do a trial run of the heel. I botched something along the way (I dropped a stitch and when I picked it up I did something wrong) but generally it went ok so I feel more confident about doing it right next time.
The worst of it now is that I'm not sure whether I should just cast on the smaller # of stitches, or whether I should drop needle size as well. I'm tempted to do both. These socks seemed to have an awful lot of stretch sideways.
5 comments:
The design made by the coloring of the wool looks interesting, but your description of the 5-needle pattern -- yikes.
I knitted a patterned sock once -- 4 needles. It was fun. Never got the second one done, though. My husband came back from his 1-yr. military tour in Korea and life got back to normal (lots of moving). Knitting requires a lot of concentration for me and I just couldn't sustain the necessary focus. Oh, well. Fun while it lasted. :)
This happens to me too! I am trying to downsize a pattern and either I have on way too many stitches...or way too few.
I have been trying a little lacy scarf and now that I have the pattern down I have to find the right yarn....the two yarns I have tried are just not right!
Do you have someone helping you with the heel?
Best knitting wishes,
Donna
Hi Donna - tried replying to you but mail bounced.
I’m doing it all on my own – with a book in hand & a couple online tutorials. I’m just beginning to pick up stitches for the gusset now. I’m knitting both socks at once because I thought that this way they would end up roughly the same because I’d be sure to remember what I did & do it again the same way. I was breezing along the cuff & heel flap & then I realized that I was pulling yarn from the inside of a ball for one sock & from the outside of a 2nd ball for the other one. Ooops. So the pattern is not working out the same because one of them is ‘upside down’. I decided to just carry on & I’ll just end up with a wonky pair.
I’m hitting a bit of a snag with picking up the stitches because the pattern tells me to pick up 15 but to do that I’d have to pick up 2 in one slot in a couple spaces. I’m only getting 12, doing it 1 per. I’m not sure what to do. Oh well. I have been reading Knitting in Plain English & it has been inspiring me to just wing it & forget about doing it ‘the right way’.
Nice to hear from you. I enjoy seeing your knit projects. Which scarf are you eyeing? I’m thinking of doing Branching Out from knitty.com – maybe in Rowan Kidsilk Haze….I have to find the yarn in a store to touch it first because though it looks lovely on the web & people say it’s soft, I find many yarns too itchy, esp. for the neck.
Ttfn :-)
I hope you find this comment :o)
I would say if you only can manage 12 stitches...go with that! Do try to have the same number on both sides :o)
I joined 'summer of lace' knitting group I spotted over at Wendyknits.
In joining I got a free pattern of a Fishtail Lace scarf.
Hope your socks are coming along! I can't wait to see them.
My first pair of socks was 'wonky' :o)
Donna
Hi & thanks Donna. I'll let you all know how they turn out.
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