Another one done! These are the Blueberry Waffle socks by Sandy Turner, for my mother-in-law, who chose this yummy color of Shepherd Sock, which is "Purple Club". I decided on this pattern for a number of reasons -- that it was said to be nice and stretchy, and that it is a good pattern for avoiding the dreaded pooling-and-flashing, and because, well, how could I not when the colors actually look like smooshed blueberries and cream?!
I used the eye-of-partridge heel flap instead of the usual Sl1, K1 -- it seemed more in keeping with the waffle pattern somehow.
As I was knitting blithely along on the second sock, I looked down at the finished heel turning and realized that because I was actually reading the instructions, I'd done a sort of band heel. Since I'd turned the first heel months ago, I'd forgotten that I'd done a round heel on the first one. I will offer as an excuse that I was not following the pattern especially closely since Turner had written it for 4 dpns, including specific instructions as to how many sts per needle, etc. and I was knitting with 5. It's too bad that I wasn't paying attention the first time around, as I appreciate the use of different heels, and of course it's good to have various types in one's bag of knitting tricks.
That said, this particular sock can be adapted to any kind of heel and toe the knitter likes, using the basic "waffle" pattern, which is simply,
Rounds 1 and 2: K to end.
Rounds 3 and 4: K2, P2 to end,
over a total number of stitches divisible by 4.
The stitch pattern doesn't really avoid pooling and flashing so much as disguise it, as you can still see the effects, but they are certainly muted a bit.
In addition to the inherent stretchiness, I added a little calf shaping, which wasn't especially difficult to do with this pattern, thank goodness, as I foolishly didn't keep track of what I did on the first sock, and had to re-create it for the second -- which on the second attempt proved to be much less complicated than I was making it!
The moral of the project is, of course, it's just not a good idea to leave things half-finished for years!
Oh I have learned that lesson. Many, many times. It never stays learned. Nice to have another WIP done and dusted, though.
Posted by: Mary Lou | June 12, 2015 at 05:32 AM