Tuesday, February 06, 2007

So there I was Saturday morning...

sitting in the rocking chair by the window as the sun streamed in. The cat was sleeping on my lap, enjoying the rare moment of sunshine too. I had just turned the heel on pink sock #2, take 2, and was feeling proud of myself. I leaned over and picked up my notes on pink sock #1 and looked at the heel flap notes.

Why, I asked myself, had I only done 24 rows on the heel flap of sock #1, when sock #2 required 36 rows to amount to 2 1/2 inches?

And then the memories came flooding back. And I was alternately flummoxed, disgusted and finally highly amused.

When I started work on these socks, I knit a swatch or two, trying to get the gauge right. Then I started asking around and found a KAL for these socks.

(Do you know that not many people knit gauge swatches? Well, I knit 'em, because of knitting one sweater again and again until I learned about gauge and how it counts. And then I only had to knit that sweater once more and it fit. What a revelation! Check your gauge, folks.)

Not many of the KAL members gave a toot about gauge; they all just jumped in and then wrote about how they were changing the pattern, didn't like this, didn't like that, this was too loose or too tight. All of which might have been corrected by getting the correct gauge.

Finally one kind person directed me to another kind person who had helped her with the socks and who had also knit several pairs of these socks (7 pairs). She kindly answered my email, advised me and set me on my way.

To knit the socks as the pattern was written. But, you see, the pattern was written for two weights of yarn, and between Thing 1 and Thing 2, I forgot that I knit Thing 1 as the pattern was written for the heavier yarn. And when I started Thing 2, take 1, I knit it according to the directions for the lighter weight yarn, which meant more stitches, but I was using the bigger needles, so that meant a flabbier sock. And after unravelling Thing 2, and starting Take 2, I used size 2 needles instead of size 3, but still the stitch count for the lighter yarn, which meant a slight difference in size which I had been puzzling over even as I knit.

So I've come to a stop with that sock once again. I don't know if I'll continue or unravel. It's good practice, yes? this unravelling and re-knitting.

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