A First Second Sock

...Pair, that is.

The camera quality is not ideal, but as you can see from the moving toy car in the background, I was being distracted.

These are Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in rainbow knit on Size 5 Takumi bamboo DPNs. It's the yarn I got at Stitch DC to learn on for Karida's sock class, but I finished Oren's Paton's socks first because I promised him the first pair of socks I made. The above picture captures the color OK, but it's not quite as technicolor in real life.

I ended up ripping the part I made in class back down to the toe and going up to 48 stitches, instead of the 40 called for in this toe-up pattern. Then I decided to accent the foot with a stitch pattern instead of doing plain stockinette, so I used the Elongated Corded Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. (This blog has a lovely close-up picture in a solid color so you can see the pattern better. That was beyond me the other day.)

The yarn is mad soft. I actually like how the pattern pooled the red/blue/purple together and the green/orange/yellow together. It's pretty random striping in just stockinette. And the pattern is super easy to remember and keep track of where you are, but is still fun to knit.

And I finished off with Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind-off after an abortive attempt to remember the K2,P2 bind-off from Vogue Knitting. That cast-off and I did not get along AT ALL on the first pair of socks I made, and not having my entire knitting library with me while traveling, I couldn't find the exact instructions again.

For some reason, EZ's bind-off wasn't making sense to me when I was first doing it, but then something clicked and about 3/4 of the top edge of the sock looks very, very good. You can sorta see it in this blurry picture here:

Bottom left, icky poo. The rest of it, even steven. Though a little tight. I still need to work on casting off more loosely.

So this one sock is now residing in North Carolina as a late birthday present for my stepmom. I just cast on last night for the second one (thereby avoiding the dreaded SSS {Second Sock Syndrome}) so hopefully I can get it done this week while the aunties amuse the boy.

Will have to update more later about Stashalonging. So far I'm faring well, but I better keep busy for the rest of May because I've already used up my free day. (Eek!)