One down, one to go

Well I finished one of M's Christmas '08 socks.


This sock fits me so well, I'd be tempted to keep the pair for myself except that this is a seriously late Christmas gift. If they were this year's Christmas gift, I don't think they'd stand a chance of making it all the way to Iowa when it would be so easy to put them in my own sock drawer instead.

I really like how the diagonal lace pattern turned out and I like the stripiness of the yarn. This is my first good toe up sock (I tried it once in the past and while I wear those socks from time to time, the leg is really loose and floppy and the yarn is too thick to make the socks comfortable with regular shoes--I have to wear my Crocs). I learned a couple of new techniques: the Turkish cast-on (lots easier than I thought it would be) and the Russian bind-off (also easy).

I tried the Turkish cast-on because when I've tried doing a short-row toe in the past you could see where the provisional cast-on had been. Maybe this would have gone away in the wash, I don't know (since I never took those socks to completion except the pair I already mentioned which are too loose to really tell anything on), but I thought it would be worth trying a new technique to avoid that potential complication.

As for the bind-off, I first tried my regular bind-off (knit 1, knit a 2nd stitch, slip the first stitch over the 2nd stitch), but it was too, well, binding. So, I decided to try one of the bind-offs suggested in Wendy's book (from whence the pattern came) and the Russian bind-off looked easiest. I did the bind-off as loosely as possible and while it looks a little ruffled off the foot:


When the sock is on my foot, however, it lays nice and flat and is non-binding which is everything you want a bind-off to be in a toe-up sock.

So, now all I need to do is knit the 2nd sock which is easier said than done as most people know. I think if I cast-on (Turkishly) for the sock right away (like, as soon as I finish this post) I might stand a chance actually getting the sock done. Also, I am resisting starting the socks for my mom's Christmas '09 present until I get this pair of socks done. I really want to get Mom's socks done to avoid another situation like the one I have for M's socks so that'll push me to get the 2nd sock done. I think.

Off to cast-on, now (Turkishly).