Leftover Socks go Lime and Violet

Remember a few days ago when I said the wild weather made me go a little kooky and I cast on with some leftover purple yarn without having a pattern in mind? Well, here are the final results. When it became abundantly clear that the purple yarn was going to run out well before the gusset shaping, I dug in my stash and came up with a variegated lime yarn. Since I've given a little blog space to the Lime and Violet podcast lately, it stands to reason that they would influence my knitting, especially since their recent podcast seemed to include some subliminal messages. Now, since my knitting students are all in the 10 to 12 year old range and they might check in on my blog from time to time, I don't link directly to the Lime and Violet website from my blog (sorry, L & V) but I do listen and here are my kooky, L&V socks that prove it. Not the prettiest socks I've ever made but a great learning experience.

What I learned:

1) Stripes kind of get wonky when you hit the heel flap, especially if you haven't planned your stripes in advance. I had just started the stripes mid-foot, doing a graduated pattern to work the green yarn in gradually, so it wasn't a very abrupt changeover. I was flying by the seat of my pants, so I was designing as I went and paid the price.

There is no way to carry the purple stripes across the heel flap while working two socks with the magic loop method unless you break the yarn and tie it on where you want it. It would have messed with the graduated stripe pattern I had going on in the instep, so I just let the variegated yarn carry up the heel flap. It's not a beautiful solution but the socks will be worn inside boots for hockey, so no one will probably see the heel flap anyway.

2) I should use two row counters when doing stripe patterns and gusset increases. I missed an increase on one side of my gusset and didn't find it until about 6 rows later. Fortunately, I could drop a stitch and work the increase and stitch back up with a crochet hook but what a pain that was. I was trying to keep track of my rows of each color and the alternating increase rows of the gusset and the fact that I had one sock on the magic loop "backwards" so that the jog in the side where the stripes don't line up would be on the inside of both socks. It was too much for me to keep track of, especially late at night, when I was trying to finish up with the gusset increases before bedtime. I need to be better about notes or setting up row counters, instead of trusting that I'll remember where I am.

3) I learned how to do a picot hemmed top. It's not perfect. It's too big and rolls, so I may run some elastic in it to tighten it up a little but I was pleased to learn a new technique and it ended up looking very pretty. The angle of the photo doesn't do it justice. On my next socks, it will be better.

I'm being kicked off the computer. DH needs to study for his big exam this week. More later!