My Work Work-Plan Plan – in which I plan to have a plan and then work to work to my plan – is all working according to plan. (hee hee, I love to I wreck heads!) I’m two days into my strategy and I’m feeling all super-productive and happy. This super-focussed-feeling is spilling into my home-life too (so I’m only allowing myself 30mins to blog) and even has me feeling I should be super-focussed on what my knitting project priorities should be.
Note I say “should be” because, in reality, my inner-crafty-self is not listening to super-focussed-work-self. Super-focussed-self says I should be focussing on finishing those last few inches on DH’s GlenvarAgin Cardigan, so that I can get cracking on the sleeves – and finally give it too him after all these years. Inner-crafty-self says “Boring! Oooh look… shiny new techniques!” and promptly potters off in the direction of a crochet hook!
Better Mousetrap Socks by Debbie New from Unexpected Knits
One shiny new technique that grabbed my undivided crafting attention last week was Better Mousetrap Socks by Debbie New (above). Within two days of casting on, I had completed one half of my first sock. I was amazed – I don’t know if I’ve ever progressed a sock that quickly before.
Trust me, it's a sock!
One thing I’m not sure about is the way the colours are working. If you recall, I’m stranding a self-striping, faux-fair-isle yarn (Berroco Sox) with another solid sock yarn (Bergere de France CHO’7) for a bulky, quick knit. It’s giving the following effect, close-up:
So... whaddya think?
I’m not sure that I like it. I don’t think it does enough to express the construction of the sock. I think the overall sock will just look homogenously mottled.
I’m of a mind to unwind the second cake of yarn and re-wind it so that the Berroco Sox and the CHO’7 are each double-stranded separately and then complete the second half of each sock in stripes of each. Would that be completely crazy looking? Should I leave well-enough alone?
I’d love if you could give me your opinions, dear Reader.
Under Me Oxter - coz that's how I knit 
April 14, 2010 at 8:42 am
I see what you mean alright. I’d be inclined to want to highlight the sock construction more, kind of like a BSJ when the stripes travel in directions you don’t expect. If it were me I’d use solid colours, but then that means ripping back, and that might just wreck your head (ha, gotcha back!)
April 14, 2010 at 10:35 pm
BSJ is right – I see this pattern as the BSJ of socks. It’s such a quick knit that I don’t mind the idea of ripping back at all. I think I might start the second sock with the stripes and if I like it better, I’ll make the first one again to match it.
April 14, 2010 at 5:28 pm
I seriously love that garter stitch pattern for the socks.
April 14, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I’m loving it too. I’m glad it knits up quickly because I can’t wait to finish them off and see what they look like on DH. It *is* a bit of a disadvantage to the construction method that you can’t try on as you go.
May 26, 2010 at 11:24 pm
[…] Last time you saw these, I had only completed the first half of the first sock and was wondering whether stranding a faux-fair-isle colourway with a solid colour was the best mix to show off the strange construction of the sock. After much hemming and hawing, I decided to bite the bullet and un-strand one half of the yarn I had previously wound together. […]