This is the Classic Sock from Melissa Morgan-Oakes' 2-at-a-time Socks, in Trekking XXL. Started it ages ago, I'm afraid, fully a year at least, probably more -- was going to do a toe-up, thinking pessimistically that I didn't know how far one ball would go for David's manly feet, but when I discovered that the reason he wasn't wearing the first pair of socks I'd knitted for him was because he was afraid of wearing them out, I thought "poor man!" and resolved to finish this pair immediately.
I've misplaced the ball band but this is probably 327 Dark Greens and Blues, a handsome combination -- not David's usual colors, but I figured that if he didn't like it, I certainly would. The camera doesn't seem to like this color combination as much as I do -- it looks a bit dusty in this photo.
The pattern is a fairly straightforward sock with a K1, P1 rib at the cuff and K3, P1 on the leg and foot, with a slip-stitch heel flap and a standard toe. I didn't work it two-at-a-time, mainly because I really have no problem with "second-sock syndrome" and felt somehow, I suppose, that the method is more goal-oriented, as it were, than process-oriented, and while I do like having a pair of finished socks, I also simply like the time spent knitting them, so that this is a method that I don't really have an incentive as yet to try.
I have heard, of course, of the problems with the book itself, and experienced a bit of that myself with the Coquette socks a while back. With this pair, I cast on for the men's large size at 96 sts and found after a few inches that it was absolutely enormous. I ripped it out and whacked off a chunk of the stitch count -- still too big -- ended up using 68, and even that is still on the roomy side. The gauge given in the book is 9 1/2 sts per inch with XXL, whereas mine is seven to 7 1/2. Knitter beware.
The first sock weighed 52 g, so because I was still a bit concerned about not having enough yarn to finish, I did not cut the yarn at the end of the first sock, but put all of the sts on a holder before grafting the toe, and made the second sock from the other end of the yarn. The XXL did not like being a center-pull ball, by the way. I did have enough to spare, though, so that worked out all right.
Two new sock projects on the needles already -- a pair for my mother-in-law, and an "Elizabethan stocking" as part one of my Renaissance Faire costume-to-be ....
I find the two-at-a-time very futzy and irritating. I often do two and a time by using two sets of DPNs. Old fashioned, I know, but it works for me.
Posted by: Mary Lou | July 07, 2011 at 07:07 PM