Sitting on a Christmas Bough

I did it. I attended the knit night at Holy Threads and it was a lot of fun. I will definitely go again. I fully intended to upload photos after I got home but I only got about halfway there. I took the pictures, uploaded them to the computer, and doctored them. And they all pretty much sucked (except the one I took of my handspun. That one deserves an award or something) so I didn’t upload any. I will upload the two photos that I liked tonight, and hopefully get a good shot of my mom’s socks while I’m home for lunch.

I actually wanted to talk a little about the socks. I’m making Kew from Knitty, in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in the Bittersweet colorway. I love this yarn. I’ve spoken of my love for Shepherd Sock before and my infatuation with it continues. In addition, this colorway is PERFECT for my mom. The colors range from purple-pink to magenta to orange to lighter orange to yellow, and magenta is my mom’s favorite color. So, I love the yarn and it’s perfect for Mom.

I also really love making lace socks. If I have to choose between a cable-y or textured stitch pattern and a lace pattern, the lace will win pretty much every time (the exception being when I’m making socks for males. No lace for them.) Kew is a fantastic lace pattern. First of all, I have found no mistakes (yet) in the pattern. The pattern itself looks like little shields or leaves perhaps. Lovely. What’s more, I don’t feel like the yarn is obscuring the lace. I’m sure that if I had used a solid colored yarn that the lace pattern would be more visible, but I feel really good about my yarn choice.

I will admit to having some misgivings about the sizing. Since the top of the sock is not ribbed, but done in garter stitch, you have to be much more careful about the sizing and unfortunately I don’t have my mother available to measure. If the sock is a little snug up top, that’s okay because the yarn will stretch while my mother wears it. On the other hand, if it’s too big then the socks will sag and there is really nothing worse than saggy socks. We’ll just have to see. If they don’t fit her then I will keep this pair for myself and knit her new ones. Oh yes. I bought enough yarn to make two pairs of socks.

These socks also mark a bit of a departure for me. To begin with, I swatched. Usually I don’t swatch for socks because I’m: 1. Cocky and 2. Impatient. Lately though, the swatch has really been doing it for me. Like I did everything right so if the size doesn’t come out right it’s not my fault. Since these were socks, I swatched with my favorite size 2 dpn’s and promptly found that my gauge was off. So I went down to size 1's (like the pattern calls for) and didn’t swatch again. Basically, I’m holding my breath and hoping that it will all be okay. I’m also a little bit nervous about the fact that, while the leg is worked in the lace pattern, and the instep, the gauge is given in stockinette stitch. Just because someone is knitting at the same gauge as you are when they’re knitting stockinette stitch in the round does not mean that they will knit at the same gauge as you do if you switch to a lace pattern. That’s all. So it’s kind of a crap shoot all around. I plan to hedge my bets by trying on the sock tonight to see if it fits me. If it does, it will probably fit my mom. If it’s too big I will rip and start over with size 0 needles.