Year of Projects 3: Spring Shoots 01

SOCKTOPUS: Totally Vanilla • Kandahar • V Junkie • Kwalia • Farmer McGregor • Shur'tugal • 2luvcrew • Vorticity • Rumpled! • Crowley • Om Shanti • Mince Pie Mayhem • Hundred Acre Wood • De Stijl • Fiori di Zucca • Caretta Caretta • Spring Shoots


My Caretta Caretta socks have been done for days - I just haven't had a chance to blog them. Because I'm knitting for a KAL, these are knit without any modifications. Seems mods can disqualify you for prize consideration! The KAL for this pattern ends on July 30th; that's mission accomplished.

The yarn is Araucania Ranco Multy and the colours are just gorgeous. Never a worry about pooling and it knits up like a dream. It's maybe a bit busy for the pattern, but not too much. It's not superwash though; hand wash and lay flat for these socks!

The lace pattern is very pretty in this sock, and it's quite stretchy as well which is always a good thing for a well-fitted sock. The ribbing of the cuffs flows nicely into the lace pattern which, in turn, flows nicely into the ribbing of the toe area. And the pattern is well written and clearly charted. My only knock on this pattern would be that the photography for the book isn't very good. In some cases the socks don't even fit the model and in the close-up of these finished socks the nearest sock is not even in focus making the pattern details difficult to see.

Now, about the beads ... maybe shinier beads would add more bling to these socks? My matte textured matchy-matchy beads haven't really been worth the effort. They aren't big enough to make a difference to the comfort of the sock, but if you were to continue the beads past the leg and then wear the socks in shoes it might be a different story. Just the thought of a beaded instep makes me cringe.

The KAL for the next pattern in the book - Spring Shoots - began at the beginning of July and runs through to the end of August. This pattern involves an afterthought leg; if I'm going to cut my knitting I want a light and bright coloured yarn to see the stitches clearly. The yarn is Socktopus Sokkusu Original (the yarn recommended in the pattern!) in a colourway called "Slice of Orange". It's bright alright! Quite a departure from my usual colour choices. And very nice to work with - soft, non-splitty and not overly twisted.

After reviewing the notes of other Ravelers, I've decided to knit the medium size rather than the large, and to step down one needle size to avoid socks that are too large. The plan is to knit the closed tube for each foot before sitting down to cut the openings for the leg. The gusset increases begin a few inches in from the toe, but for my huge feet I'd probably have been better off starting them further along in the foot. We'll see. One thing I'm quite excited about is that I can knit as many plain rows after the cut line on the heel side of the ankle as I wish before starting the heel decreases - I have a very high instep and pointy heels, so I'm guessing that adding some ease here is going to really help the fit.

Now, to judge the length of the foot, designer Alice Yu instructs:

Cont until work measures the span of your hand from the tip of your longest finger to the wrist line. This corresponds for most people to the length of the foot from the top of the toes to the midline of the ankle.

Try it! It holds true for me and Gavin. Does it work on you too?