Sock Madness – Round 1

The socks are done!!

Sockdolager

I cast on the evening of March 6th, and finished up the Kitchener stitch on the second toe at about 7:30 this morning.

The pattern is Sockdolager, and will eventually be available for free on Ravelry. The yarn is Mary Maxim Bamboo Soft Stripes in colourway Tropical Garden. And, really, if you look at it, doesn’t it really look like beautiful tropical flowers?

Chubby legs and happy socks

The pattern is great, and very well written. I love that the designer didn’t use the same increase throughout the whole sock, but rather changed them depending on what made sense where it was used. For example, she used a m1 in the row after a purl row, but used a kll (aka a La-Link) when the previous rows where stockinette. That is very nice attention to detail.

The heel was something new to me: a modified Fleegle Heel. (The original directions for the regular Fleegle Heel can be found here.) It is a bit unwieldy to knit since you end up with 60+ stitches for the sole at one point, but on the plus side you don’t have to pick up stitches for the gusset.

I managed to get the stripes to match perfectly until I got to the heels, and then this happened:

Too much green!!! Argh!

There was clearly a dyeing error. And that means that the stripes on the foot are off by a couple of rows. And it also means that the toe of one sock is completely pink, while the other sock ends with the purple and white stripe. 🙁

Anyway, I’m on to round 2 of Sock Madness, which should start in a week or so. From here on out it is knitting at top speed. Wish me luck!