Monday, January 30, 2006

heel: 0, bowerbird: 1 (+ headache)

Even though it doesn't really look like it (to me), I knit a lot this weekend. First, I got to knit in the scrap yarn for the peasant heel:

Komi Sock 1 - where the heel will go


I knit and knit until I finished the pattern repeat that contains the heel, then knit and knit some more until I finished the next full pattern repeat. Everything was going great. Then I decided that even though I was all ready to go to bed, I just wanted to undo the scrap yarn row and pick up the stitches for the heel. "just." hah.

I didn't get any pictures of the fiasco. Though to be fair, it was only half a fiasco. Even though I thought I did the same thing on both sides of the opening to pick up the stitches, one side was picture perfect, while the other side was a complete mess, with all sorts of loopy things where there shouldn't have been loopy things, and other bizarre anomalies that it pains me to even think about. I stayed up another hour trying to figure out how to fix things, but then decided to head to bed for some restless sleep, leaving the sock in partial chaos. I managed to mostly fix things yesterday morning. I fudged things in a couple of places, but I think it actually looks fine. Next time, I'm threading a lifeline through the row right before and after the scrap yarn for the heel, so the chaos doesn't happen again. I can just rip it out, and have the empty stitches waiting for me, all safe and sound, without any guesswork. I hope.

I managed to also knit a bit on the heel itself yesterday. It's kind of fiddly because I currently have 8 needles and 4 skeins of yarn attached to the sock. I transferred the live stitches on the foot of the sock to size 00 DPNs, so I could use the 000 for the heel. I also have to knit the heel right side out. Well, it might be possible to knit it inside out, as I'd prefer, but that would mean turning the sock inside out with 8 needles and 4 skeins of yarn attached to it. It makes my head hurt just thinking of how I'd manage to pull that one off, so I decided to deal with the massively smaller headache of knitting it right side out.

I've knit 13 rows of the heel - 12 rows straight, and the first row of decreasing.

Komi Sock heel in process

Komi sock heel in progress - side


I really want to finish the heel today. That means I'll finally be able to try on the sock for real, and get an idea of how much further I have to knit for the foot. More tomorrow, if I get through the heel tonight.

5 Comments:

Blogger Theresa said...

Wow - gorgeous. There are socks, and then there are SOCKS. Love your SOCKS.

1/30/2006 9:48 AM  
Blogger kate said...

The sock is looking beautiful! I wouldn't have the patience for it. Nice work!

1/30/2006 12:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had the same fiasco when trying to pick up stitches on a fair isle thumb gusset! It was so messed up on the first mitten I put the "stitches" (see also: disaster) on a piece of yarn and knit up the second mitten, figuring I'd have something to reference for how it "should" be and use that as a map to fix the first mitten. I was super careful picking up stitches on the second one and the same fiasco occured - I think it is inevitable due to the floats. I tacked down the floating loopy things and knit the stitches up, but it never looks as nice as the right-side pick up. Let us know if you find a solution!

1/30/2006 2:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ugh, how many hours of sleep have I lost as a result of "I just want to ________ before I go to bed"? I'm glad you got things back on track -- it's looking great!

1/31/2006 2:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh dear, I was reading your posts in reverse order and now I see the ignorance that my last post displayed. How disappointing for you! I hope you find a solution that works. I think steeking followed by buttons could be very cool.

1/31/2006 2:24 PM  

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