Despite the naysayers and bad experiences, I listened to Brooke's ever-optimistic advice and started the pattern anyway. I have been knitting away without a care in the world, reaching the heel flap last week. Thursday and Friday I turned the heel and began the heel gussets.
Suddenly the thought struck like a bolt of lightning.
"These socks aren't very stretchy and lots of people have trouble getting them fit right. Even Brooke. Maybe I should try it on to make sure."
So I did.
All seemed great as I gently pulled the sock over my toes and towards my heel. Ahhh... it went over the heel! My pulse quickened as I imagined wearing my own hand-knit socks in just a few short days. Until the last few rows of the leg got stuck going over my heel.
Those were the rows I knit while at the Yarn Harlot's book tour. The excitement must have caused me to pull the yarn tighter than normal.
So I took the sock to Brooke's sock club Saturday morning. Sam tagged along (and reminded me again of how much he loves the red and black fire-truck fabric - I think I will have to create something for him out of that for his birthday) to see "our friend Brooke." (Used to be that he called her "your friend" -- congrats on the promotion, Brooke!)She agreed that if I actually wanted to wear these socks myself, I needed to frog it and re-knit the leg looser. Sam enjoyed pulling the yarn -- I just hope he knows not to do that unless I've told him to! Then Brooke spent a good 15 minutes fixing my poor attempt at picking the stitches back up. Thanks - you rock!
I've reknit the leg and am working on the heel flap again. I realized just tonight that I had also botched the heel flap the first time through -- I knit 15 rows instead of 15 pairs of rows. No wonder that heel seemed so short!
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I've made more progress on the baby cardigan. This is the back, and is almost one entire repeat. I'm not sure when I'll get back to it though -- one of the kids has run off with a needle. I found my stitch counter under the couch, but removing all the cushions and pulling the couch away from the wall did not reveal the needle's hiding place. If anyone has any clues as the whereabouts of my size 6 needle, please call 1-800-LostNeedle. You won't be asked to give your name and you may receive cash for your clues.
