Hey baby…
…do those socks go all the way up?
No. Only about halfway.
Ta da!
My orata socks. (Rav me!)
Pattern: Not!
Yarn: Crown Mountain Farms Sock Hop, Sunshine of your love colorway, 2 skeins
Needle: US 3
Started: February 6
Finished: March 13
Okay, so. How did I knit these? I started at the toes. Cast on. Figure eight. (I do like that one.)
I knit some. Feather and fan. Then I got to the heel. Forked it.
Knit the leg for a bit. And then, because I still had tons of yarn, I kept going. And going and going.
I had to put some (apparently very large) calf increases in there. Did.
Knit some ribbing, and cast off.
Done.
And now we do the dance of joy!
Okay, so maybe it was a bit more complicated than that.
Wait, was it? Not really. The only slightly tricksy bit was doing the calf increases in pattern. Which I kind of winged, but it turned out pretty nice. I think.
Kalani said I should write up the pattern, but I am Not A Fan Of Writing Up My Patterns. (Milanese lace much?) But being the wonderful and compromising person that I am, I wrote down how I did the increases on the second sock. Er, that I had to figure out again since I didn’t write it down when I did it on the first sock. No matter. Twas simple.
So you know how feather and fan in the round goes, yes? About like so, depending on how many stitches you have:
Row 1: k
Row 2: k
Row 3: (k2tog) 2x, (yo k1) 4x, (k2tog) 2x
Row 4: p
So I had 48 stitches on my needles. (Although please don’t ask me what my gauge was. I knit socks toe-up so I don’t have to figure out my stinkin’ gauge.) I used dpns. Four of them. The up parts (the yos) were in the middle of each needle, and the down parts (the k2tog parts) were on the ends. All of my increases happened every fourth row, on that Row 3 hey-this-is-the-exciting-bit row, between repeats. And they went a little something like this:
Increase row 1: (at the back of the sock) (duh) yo, m1, yo
Increase row 2: (remember it only happens every fourth row!) m1, k3, m1
Increase row 3: (k1, yo) 3x, k2
Increase row 4: k2, (yo, k1) 3x, yo, k2
And uh, yeah. That was it. At the end of the sequence, I had increased 12 stitches. I knit the next Row 3 normally, then did the increase sequence once more. Viola. Sock that fits.
Well, mostly. I only knit about an inch of ribbing because I ran out of yarn. I do wish I could have made the ribbing a bit longer, because they slide town a tiny bit, as evidenced in the pictures above. Not too bad, though.
As for the amount of yarn left over, I had about a yard left of each skein, give or take. And I would have taken a picture of that, but. Um. After that last picture? Something bad happened.
I dropped my camera. Onto a cement step.
Nels (who is getting a lot better at taking pictures, don’t you think?) had been shooting for me, and was handing me the camera to look at what he had gotten so far. I grabbed it, but neither of us realized that the strap was looped around his hand. My nice Pentax digital SLR slipped from my grasp at about the same time that the strap worked itself free of Nels’. Crunch.
Actually, it’s not THAT bad. The camera body itself sustained no damage. But the lens? Not so much.
So yeah, I need a new lens. So until then…. Well, until then nothing. Go look at my sock pictures again! Gosh aren’t they pretty?
17 comments
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March 17, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Kalani
Purty, in so, so many different ways. Absolutely beautiful. The lens mishap? Not pretty. Very sad, in fact. Dunno if it’ll help, but I read something recently that was cool: http://photojojo.com/content/photojojo-original/vintage-lenses-for-digital-cameras/
March 17, 2009 at 7:51 pm
knittinginpink
Gorgeous socks! And they’re yellow and orange! Yay for springy colorways : )
So sorry to hear about your broken lens, I hope you can buy another one soon!
March 17, 2009 at 7:58 pm
hapagirl | Weak at the knees (with a nod to chemgrrl)
[…] does tend to photograph well is a confluence of knitting. Chemgrrl has been working on a scrum-diddly-umscious pair of orange Sock-Hop knee socks for a few weeks, perhaps as long as I’ve been working on a much more boring pair of navy knee socks knit of […]
March 17, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Lindsay
Those socks are magnificent and awe inspiring to me. My heart has been telling for awhile to knit some knee highs, though my head is emphatically telling me “No, no, no”. I think these may push me over the edge. Very beautiful color, too.
March 17, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Emilee
Those are so cute!
March 17, 2009 at 9:56 pm
orata
me knee socks!!! A dance of joy! And they’re yellow and you are actually wearing them. Color me surprised. They are really beautiful and I love the increases in pattern.
That sucks about the camera lens, though. :(
March 17, 2009 at 10:13 pm
New Knit on the Net is up « Feather and Fan
[…] chemgrrl finished some brand new orata socks! How great is that? Pretty great, if I do say so myself. Go look at them–they’re […]
March 17, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Nicole
Yay! They are awesome. And I echo everyone in sadness about le camera. Mine has gone missing… perhaps there is a hex on cameras lately?
March 18, 2009 at 1:33 am
Nell
Pretty. Pretty. Pretty. And they are just the bright color for the grey day we’re having here.
March 18, 2009 at 2:32 am
irishgirlieknits
You were totally getting ready to do a jig….must be St. Patty’s Day…and then you totally were not doing a jig (the oompa thing!). Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous socks!! Looking at them will tide me over until you get a new lens…so sorry camera :(
March 18, 2009 at 12:31 pm
LaurieM
Perfectly pretty spring socks! Love ’em.
Too bad about your camera.
March 18, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Guro
Happies socks I’ve seen in a while! Gorgeous too…
March 18, 2009 at 4:37 pm
weezalana
Pretty happy joy joy socks! Love those sunny yellows and fiery oranges!
Am I the only one who read “Nels’. Crunch.” as Nels’ Crotch?
*cricket sounds*
*slinks away feeling like a perv*
March 18, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Zonda
**giggles** that Weez! Fabulous!!!!Socks!!!! Love them and you know me and yellow tones ;) Bummer on the camera though!
March 19, 2009 at 10:47 am
Jennifer
The socks are great! The camera, not really. :(
March 21, 2009 at 9:12 am
turtlegirl76
Oh wow. That yarn! That pattern! They look great!
March 21, 2009 at 9:41 am
Sheryl
Wow, what great socks you made!