I had Friday planned out. I changed my plans. So what did I do on Friday?

1. I went for a walk with a 2-1/2 year old.

2. I made LynnH’s Sinful Coconut/Vanilla Tapioca Pudding.

3. I cast on for a sock.

4. I delivered patterns to Rae’s shop.

5. I had dinner with Brian at Altu’s Restaurant.

6. I took a nap.

7. I finshed the sock.

Now, this sock is in DK-weight yarn on size 3 needles, so it’s a fast knit as they go. For you folks who don’t knit socks, it’s rare to finish one in a day, especially with a full-height cuff. I made it bigger than my normal size 6 US/narrow size because it’s a store sample for Rae’s shop rather than something I plan to wear, but the yarn size helped me zoom ahead and the color also really helped me stay on task.

So what is the pattern? The foot was knit with my First-Time Toe-Up Sock (it will be a sample both for my class and some yarn Rae carries).

The cuff is a slip stitch pattern… I like what slip stitches do to handpainted yarn. I had to go up two sizes to a 5US on the slip stitch and it really could have gone up another size or two… slip stitches are not as stretchy as plain stockinette. However, it goes on fine over the heel in this very stretchy yarn, so I’m satisfied.

The yarn is by Blue Moon/Socks that Rock (in a thicker weight than their standard sock yarn). I think they call it worsted weight, but it sure acts like DK (one step lighter than worsted) to me.

If you had some of my “Cushy ColorSport” yarn in your stash you could do the same thing with my yarn and get virtually the same feel, though my colors are applied differently and not typically as many colors on one skein as this neon rainbow you see pictured here. Yes, it’s at least as intensely colored as it looks on the screen.

And for those Socks that Rock fanatics, yes… Rae just got a shipment in and has really good stock levels right now, both the sockweight and the DK/Worsted weight I used here. No, I don’t make a penny if she sells it or if she does not, but you are bound to ask about availability, the yarn is sometimes hard to find.

I’ve really been missing socknitting as I was making all those bags and shawls for my last group of patterns. Today felt like “old home week” as I knit and knit and knit on my sock. I cast on about 4pm and bound off around 1am. I loved every stitch.

Sigh…. I’ll sleep well tonight.

(Late addition… in the morning after blocking, I still did not like the look of a standard bind-off at the top, seen above. I unpicked the edge and instead did a backstitch bind-off. This is a common procedure in machine knitting, not as much in handknitting, but it’s stretchy and lies flat. It looks better now.)

Photos: Sock, Detail of slip stitch pattern.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 2nd, 2006 at 12:15 amand is filed under Knitting, Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.