Frakking socks - Episode VI

Frakking socks - Episode VI - The Finale

Is this where we all go camping?

Sorry, BSG reference for those of you who haven't seen it.

Here are the finished socks:

Modifications:

Knit on 2.25mm needles

Cast on 68 stitches, by accident but it worked out OK

Increased to 70, removing some of the purl stitches from the ribbing to accommodate my skinny feet.

Only knit one pattern repeat on the cuff as I have short legs, ended on row 2 before starting heel.

Adapted the toe pattern to create a V of ribbing when starting the toe.

Things I learnt:

I don't need to dither so much. I understand sock construction and can make stuff up as I go.

I can do tricky cables without a cable needle if I pause for a few minutes and think about where the stitches need to go.

Changing the type of needle I use cuts down on wrist and finger strain. I used a mix of Addi circulars and bamboo DPNs. I find metal a bit slippery for cables so drop my stitches more than I do with wood or bamboo but find metal faster for stocking stitch.

When your parents suggest the stitch pattern would make a lovely jumper, especially one knit in sock yarn, know that they are joking.

Viper Pilots is a great, well written pattern, though it is fiddly and maybe not best suited to a three and a half day sock challenge. Unless you are frakking stupid. :D

My next socks will be plain old stocking stitch socks.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Congratulation! I can't believe you knit those in three and a half days, and still had time for sightseeing. Am very impressed.

2 August 2011 at 15:16

Ginger Knits said…

It wasn't quite 3.5 days, more like 4, which makes all the difference. :D

2 August 2011 at 15:22

Lashing and lashings...

As well as talk of Clementine Cake on twitter there has been talk of brewing Ginger Beer. Ginger beer is my drink of choice and I'm always in search of a good one. I find many commercial ones too sweet. Once on holiday in Brasil I had a ginger beer made with freshly squeezed ginger which is the gold standard at the moment and a tough act to live up to. @eskimimi (who has a lovely blog ) linked to this River Cottage recipe last week . I had to hunt around for brewers yeast as the brewer's yeast you can buy in chemists and health food shops is deactivated so won't work for brewing, despite the name. (trade descriptions act anyone?). I ended up buying my yeast online after consulting my brewing guru Bioniclaura . As well as knitting Laura brews her own beer, which I got sample when I stayed with her and her lovely dog and husband in Dublin when I went over at the end of October. More on that later. I couldn't wait to get started but had to wait til we returned from Hasti

We have a winner...

Check out my pea seedling, how intact and un-nibbled it is. My mysterious object, as correctly guessed by Madmurdock and Montyknits, is a gastropod guard. It seems to be working. I'd heard that slugs and snails don't like slithering over hair. I tried using hair clippings a few years ago as a barrier. It worked for a few days, til I found chewed, leafless stems and on further inspection a guilty slug covered in ginger hair. Hopefully the fleecy barrier will stay in place and mean I get a good late crop of peas. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who took part.

Ceilings

Over Easter we went to Istanbul. It's one of those cities that's been lurking in the corners of my mind, from tales of Roman Constantinople, to bordering Europe and Asia with its dreaming mosque minarets. So I booked a bargain of a city break two days before we left, chucked some clothes in a bag, picked up a guidebook and off we went. There are more blog posts and photos on the way, as we had an excellent time there, but as you can see I was quite taken with ceilings and spent most of our four days there looking up.

Ginger Knits UK

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