A Tale of Two Socks

 

Way last April, a mere three months ago, when I last posted I promised I would post again.  thankfully, I did not specify when!

In any event, here I am with a report about two sock patterns.  You recall the pattern a frustrated client flung at us?  The pattern, Vanilla Latte Socks, was a toes-up construction.  A brief glance persuaded me that it was confusing.  A longer read through did not change my mind.  

I cleared my sock needles and cast on, using KFI Paint Sock.  I elected to not work the broken rib the pattern suggested, being interested in only the heel turn.  One thing this pattern does that I really like is that the first two short rows use the first and last stitch of the instep, thus dealing nicely with the dreaded gap issue.  Onwards I went.  This designer used a double stitch technique instead of wraps and turns.  The confusing part was that she provided stitch counts (good) but counted the double stitches as two stitches (eh?  Two loops on the needle means two stitches?), thus giving a whopping 110 stitches (or more, I cannot find the pattern right now) before starting to work the gusset.  The first row of the gusset/heel flap had you work a multitude of decreases— knitting the double stitches off, of course.  None of this was apparent to me from reading the pattern, but crystal clear with work in hand.  The back of the heel/flap was a delightful ribbed triangle, working its way up the back of the sock.  Truly a work of art.  From there on, the sock was a perfectly normal toe-up sock.

We were teaching a toe-up sock class at the store, so I also had some plain socks going.  The yarn, Tutti-Frutti from Regia, is a cotton blend and a lot of fun with which to work.  Sunny and happy, which is always a nice feature when knitting in the grey days of February and March.  These socks had a more standard gusset and heel turn.  

I present pictures to show the differences!  First, the side views —Regia on the left and KFI on the right.   Note the increases running diagonally up from the heel on the Regia socks.  The increases in the KFI sock are parallel to the ground.

The fun part is when looking at these socks from the back.  I usually do a ribbed/slipped heel flap on my top down socks.  The Vanilla Latte socks provide a ribbed heel, but without the reinforcing slipped stitches.  The short row heel we taught is just basic stockinette stitch.

Both pair of socks are destined for Christmas gifts for later this year.  A pair knit early in the year, two pair of worsted weight work socks (though only one is shown here and sadly they count as one), and these guys.  I have six pair done and it is the start of July!  

I am caught up!