I know I showed you some very fun projects on Monday…the Turia Sweater and my Foggy Sunset Shawl as well as a Harvest Cardigan in the planning stages, but I’ve really been trying to get over the heel bump of these socks!
They are from Lara Neel’s Sock Architecture (knit your library!!) and are the Strie Socks, Toe Up. I’m using some Zitron Trekking in this fantastic Tobago colorway.
First off, let me tell you this is my first pair of toe-up socks. I thought that if anyone could teach me something new in sock knitting, it would Lara Neel and her amazing book. This book is awesome! There are so many different combinations of heels and toes…she talks about how to get the best fitting sock known to mankind…she even throws in some history about where certain heel techniques originated. The book is a great read through, but on to the bonus time! There are patterns and most of them are written for both toe-up cuff-down construction.
Anyway, I started these bad boys a while ago. The Magic Cast-On went alright. The toe increases were easy. I knit a foot! Yahoo! Then came time for the gusset increases. I did them. Or at least I thought I did. I attempted to turn a heel. It was coming out wonky, but I persevered and had one finished…that took 2 tries…then I started on the second one. I got to the place where I was starting to knit the heel flap and noticed that the smallest part of the little turn was not centered on the foot…I ripped back, tried again…couldn’t get it right. I ripped back again. So I did what any reasonable knitter would do.
I put them in timeout! I’d been spending about 2 days worth of my knitting time wrestling with these heels and I couldn’t figure out why the second one was even more challenging to get right than the first. I thought that things got easier as you practiced! Then I had another reasonable knitter moment.
I counted. The second sock was about 8 stitches short…meaning I didn’t work the gusset increases long enough…I held up the first sock with a heel and had a lightbulb moment…this heel was off center too…probably because I didn’t have enough stitches to start the dang thing…
Here begins the mild swearing and unraveling of yarn…I ended up pulling out the gusset increases I originally did because I did one side in the wrong spot…
Needless to say this time I’m counting my rows. Like any reasonable knitter would do. Here’s hoping I get these finished soon! My friend Korey is working on a mitered square sock yarn blanket and is dying for my scrap!!
Linking up with these lovelies:
Knit Your Library with Emily at Snapdragon Crafts
Yarn Along with Ginny at Small Things
Keep Calm & Craft On with Nicole at Frontier Dreams
❤
Jenna
hardknitlife 
oh dear. I am sorry you are having such trouble with the heels – and isn’t. it annoying how important counting can be in knitting? It should be instinctive I think. 🙂
If ever I was tempted to light some knitting on fire…too bad it wouldn’t burn with the wool and all 🙂 and they will be perfectly cozy when I figure it out!!
Lol