Life as a Spectator Sport

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Monday, April 02, 2007

Oops

I've almost finished the first of Kay's socks, and it has a problem. I've known about it for a while, and decided not to rip back and fix it. It isn't really a defect in the sock, just a mismatch. I worked the heel with the typical 50% of the total stitches. But I forgot that the sections of the sock adjacent to the heel were not the same. Because I'm working a k4, p2 flat rib over 18 stitches, the right side of the heel has 2 purl stitches adjacent to it--the end of the previous needle's stitches. But the left side has 2 knit stitches adjacent to it--the beginning of the next needle's stitches. So the gusset on one side has an attractive 2-stitch pattern for the length of the gusset--the decrease stitch and the knit stitch next to it, with the two purl stitches of the rib pattern separating it from the pattern that continues down the instep. But on the other side, the decrease stitch and its adjacent knit stitch are incorporated into the beginning of the next needle, so it has a six-stitch panel at the beginning of that needle.
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The left side, as it should look.

The right side, not the same

The right side is not as distorted as it looks. I just wasn't as careful about spreading it out flat as I was with the other side.

I fussed and fiddled around with how to fix this for two days before the obvious solution presented itself, which may say something about how tired I am. All I have to do is incorporate the two purl stitches of the next needle's rib pattern into the heel, so the instep will have the same pattern on each side. Because Kay has very slim legs and ankles, I don't want to make the heel flap any larger than it is, so I'll decrease two stitches on the first row of the heel. Then I'll keep the extra stitch that I always pick up on each side when I start the gusset, and my stitch count will be back to the original number.

I've spent an enjoyable, but exhausting two days in northern Virginia--Saturday with Kate and Sunday with Kay, shopping, eating in interesting places, buying fabric and books. On the way south today, I stopped at Springwater Fiber Workshop in Alexandria, a non-profit fiber arts shop and artists' community, to see a friend who works there and to donate a book that I somehow managed to acquire two copies of. And I couldn't leave, of course, without buying more fiber--about 6 ounces each of undyed superwash merino and Blue Faced Leicester. And the Twisted Sisters Sock book, with some interesting dyeing techniques that I'll play with as soon as I have time for them. And a skein of this and a skein of that . . .

Back to uploading today's work, which is, after all, why I have the money to be doing any of this.
posted by Liz @ 7:02 PM     |


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