In which I experiment on my spouse

The Trekking socks progress, a pair of fraternal twins.

Harvey, on the left, is the sensible one, definitely the left-brained older sibling. His heel is traditional heel stitch, bordered by a 3-stitch garter selvage. He asks nothing extra, says "please," "thank you," and "excuse me," and cleans his plate. He'll settle into a shoe with nary a complaint. Flying under the radar, Harvey's quiet class will always be underestimated.


Harry, however, is the rebellious, artsy second child. His heel rocks the eye-of-partridge stitch with a twisted German chain selvage. He is fussy, meticulous, and high maintenance. He will rebel against shoes--Fight the man!--wanting to show off his rockin' bod to the world. Though we live in the land of birkenstocks-and-socks, I'm doubting my mild-mannered husband will indulge Harvey's desire to be on display.

As the Yarn Harlot says, the only reason for making socks in this day and age is because you love someone.

Damn.

Speaking of loved ones...seems all of my artful still-lifes have earned a fan and an imitator...sincerest form of flattery and all that.

I heard the camera beeping the other day, and witnessed Mr D, age 4, walking purposefully about his room, arranging and recording his belongings for posterity.

A sample:

Little Chevron Rib

And so I start another pair of two-at-a-time socks.

These ones are for M, who chose the 10-stitch, 4-row Little Chevron Rib pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks (love that book almost as much as the original!).

At first I really didn't like the way the knit/purl pattern interacted with the dark parts of the self-striping yarn (Trekking XXL color ). Now that I'm a few inches in, though, I like the way the purl bumps pull up lighter and darker colors into the stripes, and the texture is fantastic. I'm using size 1s (gulp!) and my gauge is 8.5 stitches per inch, so the fabric is really taut and interesting. I'd love to see what this stitch pattern looks like with heftier yarn.

Speaking of size 1s, this is also a showdown of the needles: I'm trying to decide whether to take back the Addi Turbos I bought a couple of weeks ago...impulse purchase when my KnitPicks circulars hadn't arrived yet, and $25 can buy more yarn. So I'm using one KP and one AT circular to see if I can discern any difference or preference. So far I've definitely noticed the weight differential--the Addis are much lighter, as Grumperina posted about a while ago--and I have to have a tip transition whenever I switch, but I don't know if I feel strongly about one over the other, nor do I think I'm appreciably faster with one over the other. I do feel strongly that $5 is more reasonable for a needle than $12.50; on the other hand, I love all my larger Addis and DO notice a speed difference with them. Anyhoo--

Back to the socks: I was able to read much of Helen of Troy by Margaret George while knitting on these this week. I'm not a huge historical fiction buff, but this one was good.

Siamese Twins

Reunited and it feels so good...

These baby cable socks from Sensational Knitted Socks (have I mentioned how much I LOVE THIS BOOK???) are my latest foray into Try-something-new-and-a-new-technique-too Land. Well, I suppose technically they are my third pair of socks...since November...but they are officially the first pair to fit me. The Thujas, of course, were for M. so they weren't meant to fit me. The alligator feet, though a great learning experience in terms of technique, were mismeasured and fit a woman with size 10 W feet, not me with my 8.5 narrow.

(Anyone out there need a pair of green wool socks, slightly used?)

The stats: KnitPicks Essential Solid in Dusk, US size 2 KnitPicks Classic Circulars (one 24", one 32"), 6.5 st/inch.

I was so excited about the new technique--two socks at once!--that I did not document well in photographs--I'll do better next time. In words:

I cast on for two at once (this was truly the hardest part, followed by keeping your yarn untangled since you're working with two balls), then knit the legs down. At this point, Thing One and Thing Two were separated, one onto each needle, as I knit the heel flaps and turned the heel on each, trying to keep the "two at once" vibe going. (The heel stitches stayed on the needle, the instep stitches went onto waste yarn.)

After finishing both flaps/turns, I stole Thing Two's needle, leaving it completely on waste yarn, and did Thing One's gusset, finishing at the end of a pattern repeat (so actually about 3 rows into the foot). Removed the needles and did Thing Two's gusset, ending in the same place. Slipped Thing One back onto the needles and motored down the feet, finishing the toes last night at about 8:00.

Total time: 2 1/2 weeks of semi-sporadic work. Loved it!

I used KnitPicks' free downloadable pattern for "Boot Socks" to learn the cast on. After that, it was SKS all the way...