Flaws

In high school, I knew this girl who always looked very chic. She had this one particular outfit that was like this... black stretchy catsuit... thing. She wore a sash over her hips and ballet slippers. It looked very French. I always was impressed by how slim she looked in this outfit. I was born with a poochy belly, you see, and no number of sit-ups ever made a dent in it. This girl confessed that her catsuit thing was, in fact, concealing an assortment of supportive undergarments. She had control-top pantyhose, a girdle, and possibly a waist cincher. She was actually the bearer of a pooch and cellulite. She said one of her big fears was that she'd get into a car accident and the EMTs would end up exposing all her infrastructure. You'd think she would be more worried about injury, but we were 17. We had different priorities then.

Anyway, I thought of this today as I started the second picot hem of my Vandyke socks. Somehow, even though I was doubly careful with this hem, I ended up with many more difficulties than with the first. I tried to fix the mistakes as best I could, because the thought of starting over was too much to bear. The outside of the hem looks pretty good, but the inside of the hem--like the inside of Catsuit Girl's outfit--is full of structural secrets and flaws. The inside of this hem is all cellulite, but you have to look really really closely to tell.

If anyone that close to my ankles while I'm wearing these socks, I'm going to kick them.

Perplexing Picot

I finished my Canyon Socks and decided that my next pair would be something kind of lacy and fancier than the other socks I've made before. After much deliberation, I chose the Vandyke Lace Panel Socks by Kristin Benecken. (I downloaded the English version.)

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I made the following changes: I increased the stitches to 72 (I have big feets and I knit pretty tightly) and started with a picot cuff.

I don't know why I went with a picot cuff. I hate crochet cast-on because I hate picking up stitches. Well, I started and finished the picot edge last night, and it's a wonder I didn't lose my mind. Somewhere along the way, I wound up with too few stitches, and then too many. I think I fixed it, and it looks great, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that the whole thing doesn't fall apart like cotton candy in a toilet.

Yeah, I don't know what that means, either.

Anyway, notes for myself: 72 sts, start with 2.5mm needle. Knit five rounds, knit picot round (yo, k2tog, repeat), knit five more rounds. Fold in half, knit stitches from both halves together. Knit one round plain. Switch to 2.25mm needle on first round of pattern. For sl1/k1/psso, I slipped as if to knit. I also changed the stitches around so that I had 35 on the instep side, and 37 on the heel side. That way, the 17 pattern stitches have an equal number (9) of plain stitches on either side.

Notes for my future self when working the second sock: Cast on with waste yarn instead of using crochet cast-on. Slide cast-on stitches to spare needle before attempting to knit them with new stitches. Less chance of losing stitches that way, I think.

Yarn: Regia 4-ply, light blue
Needles: 2.5mm, 2.25mm Knit Picks and HiyaHiya
Method: Magic Loop

Heel adjustments

Although I love "afterthought" heels, I felt like there was a way I could make them fit my incongruously small heels just a little bit better. The heels on the other socks I made fit pretty well, but I thought I could do better. So I just left out three rounds of plain knitting, and voila! No sag at all now.

My "Canyon Sock" in progress, with heel done and starting the rest of the foot:


Previously, I had done the heel as follows: Knit three rounds plain, knit a decrease round (six decreases), repeat until I had half the stitches I started with, and then decrease every round until I was down to six little stitches, draw the yarn through the loops, and it's done.

This time, instead of waiting till I got to 36 sts (half of my original 72), I started decreasing every round when I got to 42 sts.