Year of Projects 3: Hundred Acre Woods 02

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

I missed posting again last week ... the crazy busy-ness just won't quit. But at least this time I've got some knitting done! My Hundred Acre Wood socks are done and they are gorgeous.

The yarn is Djinni Sock from Dragonfly Fibers in a colourway called "Oberon". It's my first experience with this yarn, which I ordered to support one of the sponsors of the KAL that I'm taking part in. The yarn base is 80% merino + 10% cashmere + 10% nylon; it's classified as a "light fingering" but I'd disagree. The yarn is thicker than most sock yarn I come across; more of a heavy fingering I'd say. And since most of the socks in Socktopus are written for size 1 (2.25mm) and size 2 (2.5 mm) needles, the heavier weight is much appreciated.

The pattern is a lacy pattern reminiscent of leaves worked with simple decreases and yarn overs. The chart starts almost immediately from the toe and continues seamlessly from the foot to the leg until it flows into the ribbed cuff. It's very pretty and surprisingly stretchy. There are a lot of charts at first glance, but looking closer it's just one chart for the foot, another for the leg and one for the cuff. I thought this pattern was going to need my full attention, but after a couple of pattern repeats I didn't need to refer to the pattern and could take it along as travel knitting.

Many of the KAL participants found these socks worked up too large for their feet and since I've been finding that same thing throughout the book I decided to be pro-active. I deliberately chose the medium size (my feet are large all the way ... in fact if you look up big feet in the dictionary, there's a picture of my feet) and then went down a needle size. It worked, and I couldn't be more pleased.

I'm also very pleased with the gusset shaping on this sock. In the past I've had trouble estimating the correct point to start the gusset shaping for a well-fitted foot but the instructions from designer Alice Yu are very clear, and the fit is perfect.

At the end of the cuff I worked my modified version of Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off. With toe-up socks you have to be very careful that the bind off is not too tight. I find that JSSBO is too loosey-goosey so I process every other stitch according to her method for a stretchy bind-off that's not too loose.

And here we are at the beginning of September. HEY! Where did summer go?! According to the KAL schedule today I can cast on the next pair of socks .... Crowley. I've dug deep into my stash to pull out the oldest skein of yarn I have. It's a rustic one ply 100% wool yarn that may or may not be suitable. I guess I'll cast on to see!