Saturday, April 19, 2008

TaDa!






Yipee! One sock done, now I'm waiting for the other shoe, or sock as it were, to drop. But it won't do it by itself. I've got some knitting to do.

This pattern is the baudelaire sock by Cookie A. from knitty.com. It is a toe-up design. I edited the length to make it an anklet with a picot bind off. Toe-up sock knitting comes in handy when you are unsure about the available yardage of your yarn. I bought two skeins of beautiful lace weight cashmere (Nep A-96) at Habu during my NY trip. I only have 200 yards total. I know, yikes. So, I combined it with a skein of School Products lace cashmere. The aqua of the lace cashmere brings out the orange and aqua flecks in the Habu cashmere. Voila! An anklet is born.

The pattern is straight forward and if you lose your place, the lace repeat is easy to pick-up/find your way. I've only made one full pair of socks before, also toe-up, but with short row shaping for the heel. This pair or ahem, sock is a gusset heel with wrap and turns. I think I like short row shaping better. I had a difficult time figuring out how to lift up and knit the wrap stitch. To give a fair opinion, I have knit 2 individual toddler socks from top down and three-quarters of a man sock top down. I still prefer toe-up.

This time I tried a different cast on method. The provisional cast-on yields a nicer toe than the figure-eight method in my opinion. If you are interested, there's a great archive article in knitty that explains several toe-up cast on methods.

The only thing I'm curious about is the width of the ankle. It's a little loose. I think next time, I'll toy with doing some decreases to get a better fit. I'm also curious about size. I wear an 8.5 shoe, should my sock be a smaller size? My finished sock is a little big, particularly at the heel.

Baudelaire sock, you're so cute. I'm going to knit you a partner real soon.

4 comments:

Virtuous said...

I really like anklet socks and that is a cute picot edge!
And I prefer toe up too!

Ooh don't hesitate too long we want to be sure there is a mate! :o)

Luv the pics!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog (cozy's place).

These socks are so gorgeous; I'm going to make them one of these days. I love the color of yours. They really complement your complexion.

delsandeen@yahoo.com

Scheherazaad said...

Your version of Baudelaire is so cute and perfect for spring. I love knitting toe-up too. I use Eastern cast-on. I also knit two at a time on one circular to get over the second sock syndrome.I have never been to Habu. I only found out about it recently on Ravelry. It will be a priority for my next trip to NYC.

Lynette said...

thanks for explaining the sock detail. it looks awesome on you. please let the other sock 'drop' soon.

i haven't tried toe up socks yet but seeing yours make me want to.