Death by Sock!

For the first time ever I contemplated not starting a second sock. I never get one sock syndrome. Occasionally I might not enjoy knitting socks but finishing a pair is incentive enough to keep going. I was so bored with this pair I wanted to toss it out the window and never see it again. Which would have been a shame as these are for my gran's birthday and I really couldn't afford the time to start again. Plus it is nice sock yarn. It would be a shame to waste it. Even if it is boring the pants off me.

There is actually no reason why I should be bored by it. I normally love a lace pattern. While it isn't a difficult pattern it's certainly more complex than the socks I have finished (and enjoyed knitting) of late.

Mind you, the pattern was difficult to see until you put the sock on (as modelled by my lovely Mother with the tiny feet). It's from The Sock Club by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott. The pattern itself is called Rainbow over Lahaina by Adrienne Fong. It works over four rounds which is fairly easy to remember so no need to constantly refer back to the book. I did have to up the needle size from 2.25mm to 2.75mm. I started with the smaller needles but I could tell straight away that it was going to be too small for the yarn. Even then I feel that the sock is a little neat at the ankle and my gran has quite slim feet. My mum is the same and she managed to get them on so it worked out okay in the end. If you are knitting it for an average person I would recommend going up a sock size.

The pattern did have one of my pet peeves and that's making the heel more complicated than it needs to be. I've lost count of the number of times I have forgot to follow the pattern and just did the heel the way I normally do. I wish I had done that with this. If I had the pattern would still have worked out and I would have been left feeling slightly less frustrated. It came down to dividing the stitches and after three attempts I still got it wrong. Of course the fact that I wasn't enjoying knitting them (which was all down to me) would have contributed to that.

Now that they are finished though I am pleased with the way they turned out and I think my gran will like them. The yarn I used was zauberball again by Schoppel. This one is called flowers. Which is funny because friends at my knitting group commented that they reminded them of flowers (hence the garden photograph). It isn't as thick as the crazy zauberball and it does have variances in thickness throughout. It can also get a little fluffy. If you can cope with all that it is a lovely yarn to knit with and does make for lovely socks. I did try to make both socks match. Unlike last time it's my fault. I should have started further on in the pink when casting on the second sock. I don't think it matters though.

If you are thinking of knitting this pattern please don't be put off by me. I was clearly in a mood when knitting these socks.