Work-in-Progress Wednesday

This sock pattern - Spring Shoots - has very unusual construction. The foot is knit as a closed tube, and then a row is cut open at the midline of the ankle to add an "afterthought leg". It's Cat Bordhi's idea, and you can find out more in her Houdini Socks pattern from the Twist Collective.

I've never tried it before so I was excited to see it as part of the Socktopus KAL on Ravelry. Frankly the idea of cutting into my knitting scares me - so much can go wrong. But it's actually pretty easy when you follow the step-by-step directions.

The first step is to knit a closed tube for the foot of the sock. At the point where the midline of your ankle will fall string a lifeline through the instep stitches. Then knit two rounds and string another one. The knit row between the two lifelines is where you cut. Before you get your scissors out, grab some smaller needles and use the lifelines to pick up the stitches on each side including a couple of stitches on either side of the lifeline to really anchor the cut ends.

Then snip a stitch near the centre of the instep stitches and unravel that row from one end of the lifelines to the other. Hint: a light coloured working yarn and a dark coloured waste yarn for the lifelines makes it a lot easier to see what you're doing. Once you've unravelled, then you can rearrange the stitches and start knitting the leg. It looks odd at first, but it works. My sock fits just fine and look at the cool "star heel" I've got!

It's always fun to learn a new technique but I doubt this is something I'll do regularly. After all, I don't really see an advantage to this construction method compared to a traditionally constructed sock. One big disadvantage is that it creates six ends to weave in per sock rather than two.

That's my show and tell for today. Lot's more to see over at Tami's Amis for Work-in-Progress Wednesday! That's where I'm headed now; want to come along and see for yourself?