What is it that make one little sock so damned hard to knit? The first sock was a charmer. It went swimmingly. Really quickly. Fits like a dream.
The pattern is well written and the yarn (despite my initial battles with untangling it's 400 yds) lovely to work with so it makes a gal wonder what could go wrong?
Apparently my brain and the sudden loss of any ability to follow simple directions.
Back in October I cast on one night at SnB for the second sock of my Soctoberfest Mystery KAL sock. I was excited. I figured within two or three weeks I would be proudly wearing a new pair of socks. But something went terribly wrong. It took me the whole evening to cast on and do a couple of rows. I couldn't count properly. I had to cast on repeatedly before I managed to get all 64 stitches cast on. Then I twisted my stitches in the round so I had a quasi-mobius-esque type cuff. Sadly it all came out again. Finally conquered the cast on and thought I was off to the races.
I was wrong.
I knit the cuff and then compared it with my beautiful first sock. Something was amiss. The middle section was huge. Not just too long, but somehow too wide. But I decided I could ignore it. Telling myself, no one's going to see the cuff anyways.
I took a break from the sock until after Christmas and then decided it was time to finish it. So I plugged away on the second clue which is the patterned leg. 50 rows into the chart and somewhat alarmed that something seemed a little off, I thought I'd check the instructions to find out how many rows I repeated on the chart the second time. Much to my horror, it clearly said "Repeat rows 1-32 of the chart once. Repeat rows 1-16 one more time." Rows 1-32? My chart had 64 rows.
Then it hit me. I was knitting the foot chart. Not the leg. So somewhat disheartened, I began to frog. All the way back it went to the cuff. And I started again. Regaining my confidence with each row I did I began once again to envision proudly wearing my pretty socks. I finished the first 32 rows of the chart and stopped to admire my handiwork. I should mention I did think, about 16 rows earlier that something looked a touch off, but I was not going to be stopped in my quest to conquer the second sock. It was then that the gods of cursed socks struck me well and truly down.
I had not marked my pattern the last time I'd stopped working on it, and blithely had resumed where I thought I had been instead of carefully inspecting exactly which row I had finished at. Back to the frog pond I went. My heart heavy and my mind reeling with the ridiculousness of it all. How hard had it become for me to follow directions? Was I that lost in my own world that the simplest of tasks could become so daunting?
I am very pleased to say though, this little tale of woe has a happy ending after all. Well so far anyways.
Yesterday I picked up knitting and chart with much trepidation. I carefully examined where I should begin knitting, took a deep breath and began. I zipped through the remainder of the 32 rows, and continued on with rows 1 - 13. I had a glimmer of hope that I was on my way to conquering the rogue sock when I inspected my knitting and saw that it was as it should be. This morning saw the completion of row 14-16, the eye of partridge heel flap, and blessedly the turning of the heel with no disasters.
I know it's early days, but I am feeling brave enough to say that I declare my rogue second sock to have admitted defeat in the presence of my knitting determination. I shall have a nice new pair of socks after all.
Wish me luck on that foot chart. Really I've already had practice doing it twice before, so it should be a piece of cake... right? Next post I do I am determined to have a picture of my finished pair of socks to show you.
Until then, as I said, wish me luck and I hope you're having much more success in your knitting endeavors than I have been lately!
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