Elka Knits: Spring has Sprung

March 22, 2004

Spring has Sprung

Happy Spring! Kinda chilly here and I believe others are suffering from cold weather but still its spring. Yipieeeeeeeeeee. My favorite season-flowers, sun, and usually warming temps. Not much knitting to report over the weekend. Last weds[yes St Patrick's Day] was my 9th anniversary so we spent Saturday and Sunday being couple-y. I did manage to just finish my sock. Yes its true. I am 1/14th the way through the annual 7 pairs goal. Actually I am not really through since I still need to sew in many many yarn ends and wash. But hey its picturable. The reason I had so many yarn ends is: my Koigu had 4, yes 4, very weak areas where only a few fibers were holding everything together. So far I am not overly impressed with Koigu quality controls. Still I hold out hope that this was a fluke. The sock took just under 1 hank of yarn. Just a foot or so left over. Mind you I have very short and wide feet. The pattern is New England Socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. I modified it slightly: short row heels and toes ala PGR. I am thinking that short rowing the heel requires one to knit less foot length. Any sock pros out there know the answer? The pattern calls for 7 diamonds, which I dutifully knit, but my feet only needed 5.5 diamonds. I was ripping out the weekends knitting at 1 am and did the toe this morning. Anyway back to my short row causing less in the round post heel knitting required theory. I checked Folk Socks by NB and she states that for the peasant heel[the closest possible one listed being done post sock knitting and using a contrasting yarn knit in accross heel sts] that the avg foot requires 4" between contrasting thread and toe shaping. Since the avg foot, per her patterns, seems to be 7.5" and one starts the toe 2" prior to that...? Has anybody fallen so in love with a pattern that they knit it using a regular heel flap and then again with the short rowed heel? If so speak up.

Posted by Elka at March 22, 2004 04:21 PM

Comments

Love that sock! You may have just inspired me to find my copy of that pattern and get going on some socks!

Posted by: marti at March 23, 2004 01:53 AM

Now, that is a beautiful sock, Elka! Congratulations on the anniversary *and* the sock. :-)

Posted by: sam at March 23, 2004 12:03 PM

Lovely sock. Wanna make me a pair??? heehee

Posted by: CarolineF at March 24, 2004 08:12 AM

I've always wanted to make those New England socks and yours is even more beautiful than the one in the book. I've only used Koigu once but one skein had about 1/3 less yarn than the second. And it ran in the cold water wash. It was really soft though.

Posted by: Nanette at March 24, 2004 05:54 PM