Pioneer Socks Ready to Walk

As I announced during my travelogue, my Pioneer Socks are done! I finally have them blocked and have taken some glamour shots...

Project Stats
Started: 9 Jun 09
Finished: 22 Jul 09
Pattern: Denise's Toe-up Socks (free)
Materials: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Michigan Cherry Blossom, 2 skeins ( $0--trade for services)
In general, the variegated colour striped up nicely. There is one spot you can see on the right sock leg where there is a sudden change to wide stripes, but what can you do? In the end, the colours do not match my Pioneer Tshirt very closely, but I like the socks as they are.

I followed a tutorial type pattern for the sock and added the 2-stitch cables (or "twists") to match the twists on the Pioneer Tshirt. The heel is very basic. It turned out rather blocky since it has no subtle shaping or curves. It also turned out rather tall. But that's better than short! There's no pulling over the top of my ankle (opposite the heel) which is very good.

The twist pattern on the top of the foot was added to the back of the sock after the heel. If I had thought the pattern out thoroughly, I would have started the twists on the heel flap, but as it is, I just started them when the heel was done and I started knitting around the leg.

When I got to the top of the leg (near the end of my yarn supply) I switched to a 2x2 rib, arranging it so I could continue the twists on two knit stitches. Little details...

I finished it off with the sewn bind off, this time giving myself enough yarn to actually finish it. (hooray)

When setting up to take these final pictures, I realized I have no shoes to show off my socks to their best advantage. This may give me an excuse to start shopping because surely I'll have other socks that will need pictures too!

Travelogue

I finished my pioneer socks on the drive up!

And more than finished them, you could say. I had counted (carefully counted, I thought) the rows on the leg of the sock. I was aiming for 80. Around 50, I really felt like I was slogging, but then apparently picked up steam because I ended up with 90 before I knew it.

The dangerous part was that I thought I had counted 80. At least twice. I had just started the top cuff when we stopped for lunch. I decided to re-double count (again) while we were sitting still at the table. That’s when I realized I had done 10 extra rows and my sock was too long.

I guess the moving car, watching Monk on my computer while Troy’s podcast was going, and trying to navigate all while knitting was a little too much for me.

Ten too many rows is pretty easy to fix, though, and I got rid of them. Then worked on the cuff and got them cast off only shortly before Troy wanted me to take over the driving. (Because I really won’t knit and drive.)

They felt great for the few minutes I had them on. More pics and final project stats when I have them blocked.

Toodle-loo!