Well, it appears what goes up must come down. On Friday night, I made another attempt at a toe-up sock, using the easy toe instructions from MSKS. On Saturday morning, this is what I had waiting for me.
The yarn is more stuff that I bought off of eBay, this time from Francis Patrick. I was using 2.25 mm dpns. It was thanks to buying these needles that I found out that while Addi makes circulars in 2.5 mm, they do not make dpns in 2.5 mm. And while they make dpns in 2.25 mm, they do not make circular 12″ turbos in 2.25 mm. Yeah, I am not sure why either.
In any case, it is not obvious from this picture (or any of the other ones I took of this knitting since the yarn is so dark,) but I made a mistake that caused a little bump in the toe and the stitch count foul up along the way. Oy! It may have been the low light level. It may have been the Margarita of Truth. In any case, it has all been ripped out now. 2.25 mm needles are too small for this yarn anyway. The results were a bit too tight for me, coming kind of close to being bulletproof.
Also ripped, is this:
There was nothing actually wrong with this, but one of the things that I am always nervous about when knitting socks is whether I have enough yarn. I feel I wind up short changing the cuff to make sure that I have enough for the foot of the sock when working from the cuff down. It might not be as big of a deal when working on a lady’s sock; but when working of socks for the size 10 or 11 men’s shoe, it is a concern for me. Hello Flipper! (I was called Flipper by a friend in college who had size 8 feet, if I remember correctly. I called him Stumps, in return.)
So this is what I have now:
I tried knitting the easy toe with the green using two 12″ circular at 2.5 mm, but the stitches at either end of the needle were too wonky for my liking, so I am going to go find some 2.5 mm dpns. I see that Pony has some, so I will give them a try.
Maybe this is all trying to tell me to get back to working on the damn rug that is still on the big loom? Nah.
I’m so sorry about your trips to the frog pond. I know how frustrating it is when things just don’t work out. Better luck next time. BTW, Knitpicks sells DPN’s as well as circulars in 2.5mm.
The knitting looks really good, but if you have to frog it, it’s worth it if it doesn’t feel right. I have book of Charlene Schurch’s books too. I currently doing a 12 stitch pattern sock for my daughter from MSKS and it’s going better than I anticipated. I have been using 2 addi 2.5 mm x 60cm needles for my socks and I was wondering if that may make it better for those stitches at the end as they may not be under as much pressure with the longer needles? Just a thought. i find they work really well. Good luck.
I look forward to hearing what you think about the Pony dpns, I was never sure about them. Now that I am home, I realize my second mitten which I started on the plane might be ripped as I will not have enough black yarn. I have a few ideas, but now I know I should not have made the cuff on the first one so long, plus the skein was 44 grams, a bit shy of the 50 g I thought I was getting.
Your sock yarns are very pretty and I know they will be socks someday.