Baby's first Birthday Socks

I FINISHED SOMETHING!!!

I had forgotten what it feels like to finish a knitting project. It's wonderful, isn't it? I had a hard deadline of Wednesday night to finish these socks, as Teresa's birthday is today (Saturday), and I had to mail them by Thursday. I didn't have much to knit... at Kniterary Club on Sunday, all I had left was one toe and two heels.

I finished the knitting, buried the ends, and washed them.
I "blocked" (I laid the damp socks on a towel, I didn't pin them) the socks to the following dimensions: 5 1/2 in foot, 4 3/4 in circumference.

As they dried, I reflected on what I would change:

1) I'm not 100% happy with the way the afterthought heel looks. It is a cinch to knit, though. My mother said she read somewhere that in order for the afterthought heel to be big enough, you have to do it over more than half of the stitches. I'll have to look into that. But I think that I would rather look into a short row heel, maybe the one Caitlin suggested.

2) I would get the measurements of the baby's foot before I started. That would have saved me a LOT of grief over sizing.

3) After I got the measurement, I would have stuck to 5 inches in length. I didn't know how many inches the toe and heel would add (answer: one inch each). I knit three inches between the waste yarn for the heel and the first decrease round of the toe. The main factor here was that I started the toe when the yarn went to purple.

What I would repeat:

1) I LOVE LOVE LOVE the scallop edge at the top of the sock, which came from Lucy Neatby. It made all the difference.

2) It used up leftover sock yarn!

3) They're pink and girly and ruffled. YAY.

I hope to visit Teresa soon and get a picture of the socks on her feet. She'll probably need some time to grow into them. Oh, well. Live and learn.

how big is a baby's foot?

Another kink has come up in my baby sock escapade: the sock is too small. I emailed my friend to ask her how long Teresa's foot was (how amazing that my roommate from college has one baby and another on the way!). Maggie said her foot was about 4 1/2 inches long. So I made the sock 4 1/2 inches long. But it looks skinny. Too skinny to fit over her ankle without cutting off circulation.

Oh, dear.

I started over, again, this time using size 2 (3.00mm) needles and casting on 40 sts. I think I've finally got it right this time... it will be at least 5 inches around for the instep, and I'll probably make it closer to 5 inches long.

another gauge error... ooopsa

I was frustrated with all of my wips, and I decided to start a simple baby sock for Teresa's first birthday. I got the Meilenweit Cotton Fantasy leftovers from a pair of socks my mom made, and decided I'd try the decorative scallop edge from a pair of socks designed by Lucy Neatby (photo on the far right). I casted on at Kniterary Club this afternoon, and everything was going great. I made excellent progress this afternoon, got to the toe... and realized that it was really too small and tight. I checked my needle size, and realized it was a size 0 (2mm) instead of a 1 1/2 (2.5mm). big problem. or small problem. ugh. I hate it when I make such stupid mistakes.

Needless to say, I ripped and started over. Gauge is my nemesis. Moral of the story: ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK THE SIZE OF YOUR NEEDLE.

This doesn't phase me at all, however, because the SPARTANS ARE IN THE FINAL FOUR!!!

Regia Silk Color Sock

I knew that this project would have to be ripped and started over out shortly after I started it in November, but denial is an ocean (not just a river in Egypt). I'm ready to deal with it now.

It's the beginning of a basic sock, 68 sts, 2mm needles, Regia Silk Color yarn in color 0190: Tanzania. Why didn't this sock work? I'll examine the reasons:

1) GAUGE
This yarn isn't very happy being knit on size 0 needles (and at less than 8 sts per inch). I might go up a size, to make my fabric feel better. It looks fantastic as is, though... I'm still debating... Lucy Neatby says to go as small as possible, and I'd like to try her way at least once.

2) TOO FEW STITCHES
I originally intended to gift these socks... but after seeing how lovely they will be, I know that I'll have to keep them. And that means I'll have to cast on enough stitches to make them Annie-sized (9 1/2).

In the end, if the sock is this tight on my wrist...

...it doesn't fit over my ankle, and cuts off circulation to my foot. (Thank goodness I didn't take any photos of that!)

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a project is to rip it and start anew. As Scarlett says, "Tomorrow is another day."