I decided fairly early on that I wanted to make some sort of sock, that had been sitting in my queue for a while. So, I pulled out my book with the waving lace socks, and some brand new Modesock yarn in one of the 221b colors that I think has been discontinued and started swatching.
Oh my is that pretty yarn. And I got a good fabric, but I wasn't quite reaching gauge for the project. Then I realized the finished size for those socks in a good inch smaller than what I usually aim for (2 inches smaller than my foot). It was starting to feel like an Algebra problem. And I wondered if I would have to publicly apologize to my freshman algebra teacher for dissing her notion that we "use Algebra every day".
As a side note, I liked math very much. I was very good at math. I hated word problems, until I got the hang of them (although why anyone would shove 50 watermelons in their car to travel 50km an hour east is beyond me), but I still enjoy math. However, I do not enjoy this kind of math. I just want to have someone say to me, yes, you are supposed to get 9 stitches to the inch, but you are getting 8.5, but you need the sock to be an inch bigger (I don't know--do I need this bigger with my 9 inch round foot?) so go for it.
In the end, I thought I'd try a different yarn. And I did and I think I am closer to gauge, but I still am worried about the sizing issue. Cue pretty yarn picture:
I know the swatches aren't big enough, but hey I swatched!
In the end, I decided to make a plain sock with the Modesock yarn because I love love love it. But I kept feeling like it was needing a little something. A cable maybe, but just something little. I started my toe up and had about 3 inches knit when the knitty surprises came out. I think I am in love with neldoreth. In fact, I think it will be perfect for this yarn. I am having trouble making the commitment and ripping. I am too lazy to try to figure out how to convert that pattern to a toe up. In essence, I am stuck. I should get over it, remind myself that my 3 inch sock is a true gauge swatch and even though it isn't washed (that swatch above is) I can probably still derive useful information out of my work.
What would you do? Would you rip the sock? Would you put the sock on a holder and start on the other end, to see if you liked the knitty pattern? Would you continue making a beautiful but plain sock? Tell me in the comments!
1 comment:
If I don't get gauge on a patterned sock after 1-2 tries, I bail and either switch yarns or try a different pattern. I had some Trekking tweed that I really, really wanted to be Zofpwanderung (that's probably spelled wrong) -- it has a really cool cable that starts at the top in the back, splits apart to wind around the ankle and meets again on the instep. I still want to knit that pattern sometime, but it just wasn't working out in that yarn. One size needle gave me a sock that was way too big, and with the next size down it was turning out to be a child-sized sock. I thought about trying again on the bigger needles but changing all the twisted rib to stockinette, but I switched patterns and tried Firestarter instead -- vaguely similar sort of look and it worked out well with that yarn. (But if I make them again I'll go down a needle size from the ankle up because all that ribbing makes them stretchy enough that I could have made them smaller -- they're not too big as such, but by the end of the day they get a little bit loose around the ankle.)
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