« February 2005 | Main | September 2005 »
pattern Clapotis by Kate Gilbert
yarn Silk Merino by Over the Rainbow Yarns. I love the yarn but like many other bloggers, I don't think the skein was as long as advertised -- resulting in a shorter than I'd like Clapotis.
Needles 4.5mm/US 7 Addi Turbos
Notes After a couple repeats I read a suggestion somewhere about purling the dropped stitches to avoid the need for all those stitch markers. Once I did this it moved a lot faster.
These socks were such a pleasure to knit up! It's the first time I've knit a sock with cotton in it.
Yarn
Regia Cotton Surf. They come in big 100g balls and I have about 7 grams leftover. The yarn has about 40% wool in it which gives it a nice resiliency and stretch, but the cotton makes it lighter weight and less warm -- perfect for in between season wearings.
Matching the Stripes
I'm really happy with the way these stripes match. I wrote a bunch about how I did it here.
Washing the Sock
When I first knit the sock it had a ridge along the joins between the 2 circs (the opposite of ladders -- it was from pulling too tightly). I had never had that happen on wool socks before and I wasn't sure if it would relax. But it did! If you look at the pic it's completely gone.
Picot Edge Hem
Since I knit these toe-up I had to hem in the picots when they were done. My first try created too tight of a hem. I finally went with a Kitchnered hem. There's a great illustration in Montse Stanley's book on how to Kitchner a hem in place. It's similar to kitchnering garter stitch. I was S-L-O-W but it worked -- took about 1.5 hours per sock! And it's as stretchy as the rest of the sock.
I like the way this worked but I don't see many toe-up picot edged socks in my future. 3 hours on hems? Seriously.
Pattern
Just a regular old toe-up with short row heel. I used a figure 8 toe with no slip knot so I could go back and pull it tighter once I had knit a few inches. I made the sock 10% smaller in width than my sock pal's foot, and I reduced the leg by 8 stitches about an inch above the heel because it seemed too wide for sock legs. I did a basic YO K2tog picot edge, followed with 4 or 5 rows of stockinette, and then the Kitchner hem.
