Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Cursed

Leyburns are the socks of Satan.

Previously I mentioned trouble getting the stitch pattern to come out correctly after the heel. That was fixed easily enough - I just knit 3 extra stitches before starting the round. The first stitch in the pattern needs to line up with the top of the ^ in the previous row, which turned out to be a relatively simple adjustment.

I then slogged my way through the leg of the sock. The stitch pattern is fiddly and cumbersome and not especially pleasant to knit. In part of the stitch pattern, you must slip 5 stitches in a row, and someone on Ravelry mentioned that it went much faster when she began slipping them all at once, rather than one at a time. I, however, couldn't get my needle into all 5 stitches at once. So, it's been slow going for me the whole way.

Then I got to the cuff. The instructions have you end with a sewn bind-off. Easy enough - I've done it many times. The suggestion is to cut the yarn 3 times the length of your bind-off edge, and I cut it to 4 times the length, just to be sure.


Do you see that? It's about 16 more stitches and not nearly enough yarn to bind them off. Hence the reason I believe these socks are cursed. Don't be fooled by their cuteness!

Last Saturday I spent part of my lovely sunny day un-binding-off the socks, and then binding them off tighter in hopes that the yarn would last. Miraculously, I had enough yarn the second time and the cuff is still plenty stretchy.

I almost don't dare to start the second sock. What new problems will befall me?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I am so not making these socks! I will just admire them from afar!