Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Good thing I didn't wait until the last minute or anything

I had my May sock-a-month knit-along socks finished days ago, but didn't get them posted until MINUTES ago, barely making the deadline. The rule is, they must be posted by noon on the day following the last day of the month you are knitting for.


It's a pretty simple pattern, but one that breaks up the monotony of an all-stockinette sock while still moving along pretty quickly. I think it would work for men or women. I used two skeins of Plymouth Happy Feet and had some yarn left over. I'll write up the pattern soon and post the link.

I did these toe-up, using Judy's Magic Cast On. When I took did the stitch design workshop with Cat Bordhi, she taught us a little ditty to help remember this cast on--it involved a girl, her mom, and her boyfriend. She swore we'd never forget it and she was right. I didn't even need to go to Youtube to jog my memory, but here's a link to Cat's Youtube video. Unfortunately, she doesn't use the same story in the video, but it's a pretty good tutorial anyway.

The other cool thing about this pair of socks is the bind off I used--Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.  If you've ever knit a pair of socks toe-up and then found them to be too tight no matter how loosely you tried to bind off, you need to try Jeny's method. It's stretchy without being a pain in the butt to execute and doesn't look too ruffly either. I loved it so much I sent Jeny an email thanking her. She replied from her iPhone, which proves she cool AND smart.

I'm going to use Jeny's bind off for the stole I'm working on. This means I'll have to re-do the supposedly stretchy bind off I initially used, but it will be worth it. I left a long enough yarn tail that it won't be a problem but I wish I had remembered this bind off sooner. I have a lot of great how-to sites bookmarked but I need to get into the habit of looking through them when I'm designing a project or when a pattern doesn't specify what sort of cast on or bind off to use. The plan is to put together a check list of things to consider when I start a new project. I'll post that here too, when I get it together. Just one more thing in a long line of things I want to accomplish. Can somebody loan me a few extra hours in the day, please?

3 comments:

  1. Grrr. Just posted a comment and did the word thing and then an error page popped up and my comment was lost!

    So, as I said before: terrific socks and you got them posted in plenty of time since they were in under the deadline :)

    I've never tried that bind off before, usually I use EZ's sewn bind off when I need a super stretchy one.

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  2. Hmmm....interesting cast off. I bookmarked it to give it a try sometime. I don't do too many toe up socks but the cast off can be tricky. You *think* it is totally fine, get it off the needles and blammo! Too tight. Grrr...

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  3. Melanie, give it a try next time you do toe-up. Seriously, it's the stretchiest bind off I've tried and it's doesn't end up looking silly.

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