Saturday, July 5, 2008

Remind Me

The next time I tell you I'm going to make socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters, remind me that I swore I wouldn't do it ever again, ok?

I'm making (or, trying to make) the Rushing Rivulet socks (toe up, with little eyelets all over and gusset shaping on the underside of the foot, rather than the sides). I did all the measurements and math she wants, and have followed the directions, but things are going badly. I'm about halfway through the gusset increases, and already the sock seems like it's big enough around--like I should work the rest of the length I need without any more increases. And the gusset starts too close to my toe--so the extra room it makes is positioned before my foot starts to widen for the heel.

I think I know why, maybe: my preferred ease is incompatible with Cat's gusset shaping. I do tend to make looser socks than many people (the whole 72 vs. 60 stitch thing I wrote about last time), and Cat's gusset shaping is more gradual than most other sock patterns (she has you increase 2 sts every 3 rows, instead of every 2 rows), so it has to start further from the heel (i.e., closer to the toe, in a toe-up sock). Since my socks are loose to start with, and following her shaping means adding width sooner, I end up with more extra width sooner than I need (which manifests itself as a flap of extra sock around the middle of my foot). Like cooking with someone and both adding the salt in case the other forgot, and ending up with too much salt.

There's just one small problem with this theory: her master number charts (which I followed like a good little knitter) say they include adjustments for a good (tight) fit already, so by following the directions to that point my sock should have been compatible with the rest of her directions. It's a mystery.

I'm thinking about ripping back to the beginning of the gusset shaping (maybe 3 inches) and reknitting, this time waiting till I think it's time to start gusset shaping my way. Which defeats my whole aim, which was to follow a pattern and not have to do any calculations.

And is disgruntling because knitting a pair of socks a week is much harder when you rip back!

Also, I'm deeply annoyed because I got an iPod Shuffle, with the impression that I could listed to things in an order I set by creating a playlist and loading it onto the Shuffle. But apparently that doesn't work with podcasts, which is the main thing I listen to--although you can reorder the list of podcasts in iTunes, when you go to play them (on the shuffle), they always reorder so the newest ones are first. Which would just be irritating, if I didn't regularly fall behind on podcasts where the order matters (CraftLit, mainly), and where I want to listen to the older episodes first.

I was slightly comforted to see many other people with this complaint on Apple discussion boards--but less comforted now that I haven't been able to find anyone who's solved it. (I thought I could trick the shuffle into treating my podcasts as songs by changing the genre to a music genre, but that's didn't work.)

Anyone want a slightly used iPod Shuffle and a slightly used copy of New Pathway for Sock Knitters? (Just kidding!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I looked at that book, and while the patterns looked fascinating, it just seemed like too much work. So, if you will let us KNOW when you are planning on embarking on this, I will be happy to steer you toward, say, Knitting on the Road, where you could easily dedicate yourself to knitting every single pattern.

Meanwhile, I have no words of advice on the iPod. I recently got the iPod video, and I think I am caught in an endless loop of transferring video from my computer to the iPod to TIVO. It's possible there's a satellite involved, but I'm keeping my eyes shut.

Anonymous said...

As a non-knitter, I say finish the socks as they are. Then gift them to someone who likes tight socks. Presto...less stress and a gift!

By the way, Connie is taking knitting lessons so be ready for questions when you arrive in Sunset Beach!